A Note About the Project

This project was an abject failure. As can be seen in the video below, coins cannot even get out of the hopper. The reason for this is rather simple. Due to the unique and, in hindsight, foolhardy sorting mechanism, there was almost no time to complete the construction of the rest of the project. Additionally, the entries in the engineering notebook do not accurately display the effort put in. Due to the exceptionally low (less than 0.2 mm) tolerances of the design, entire days were spent attempting to calibrate the holes. The end result was dozens, if not hundreds of tests whose results were not marked simply because to mark the same exact result over and over would have used an unacceptable amount of paper. The simple fact of this design is that it was flawed from conception onwards. Even with all the tools available in the workshop, there was no way to get the sorter to work. In any future design, tolerances must be remembered from the conceptual stage onwards. Even though this project was a fluke in every other regard, it was a valuable lesson in the importance of design tolerances. Even with the best tools available, there is a certain amount of error. If the design relies on perfection, or very close to it, it will not work. This must be rembered whenever projects are planned, and any designs which rely on perfection beyond the tolerance of the tools available to acheive must be thrown out.

Final Analysis

This project was an abject failure, but an important lesson. Conceptual ideas are worthless if they cannot be implemented by the tools available. And, if all current iterations of a device use a similar design, chances are its the best design available. So, while the device itself was a failure, the process was a success. 

NOTE: The design proposal for this project is missing. This is because it is on my school email, and thus I have no way of getting it to my personal email, which houses my website.