Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Acrylic got here

Well, my acrylic finally came in today.  I'm going to open it up, and start looking at it when I get home later.



In other news, I have 7 gallons of mineral oil on order through Tractor Supply, which should be here hopefully before the end of next week.

In other more different news, I'll be ordering the rest of the components I need tonight - the radiator, pump, fans, tubing, etc.

Busy times ahead.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Finally ordered acrylic...

Well, I finally got around to ordering acrylic.  It should (if UPS can up their game) get to me by this weekend.


It's shipping to me from California, so we'll have to see about that.

In other news, my presentation is scheduled for the 14th of June, at 9am.  I really hope I'll figure out how I can bring this thing into Mr. Creagan's room that day, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Next major hurdle: locating about 6 more gallons of mineral oil ...

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Slow Goings

Well, its been a while since I last posted, but here's a quick update on what I've been working on the last few days:

I'm going to build the most recent iteration of my design, the one in the post below.  I found a company, TAP Plastics, that sells cut-to-size acrylic sheets; perfect for my project.

Another thing I've been working on is applying for an IPEI grant. Hopefully that will come through, as it would be a huge help to my project.

So my goal is to order acrylic tonight, and start working on the build this weekend. We'll see how it goes.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Rev. 2 - More detailed CAD model

Well, I spent some time working on rev 2 of my case design.  I am pretty sure I want to build this design, as I think it will look great and function really well.  anyways, here it is:


So the main part of the case will be a fairly simple box shape, with some rails for feet on the bottom of the tank.   I've made the tank as small as I could, in order to minimize the volume of oil I would need to buy.  This tank should hold around 6 or 7 gallons when its full.

While I was working, I realized that there were probably some better part files I could get off the interwebs to use in my design.  I found the radiator, in the foreground, as well as the attached fans, and the black pump sitting on the floor of the case.

I met with Mr Sauve today, we went over the mid marking period assessment, and we both felt like I was in a good position.  We also started talking about my presentation, for which I would like to bring in the finished product to show off.  Transporting this thing however, will not be easy, but it would be worth it to have as a prop for my presentation.

So in the coming days, I plan to order acrylic sheets and actually get building this beast.  I found a company that will cut acrylic whatever size you want, and whatever thickness you want.

I'm really excited to get this thing off the proverbial ground.