The Trebuchet so far...

The creation of our trebuchet is going really well. Charli and I have almost completed the main supports of the design and will soon be able to start working on the mechanics of the "arm." We are going to try and put a sling on the trebuchet, but if that doesn't work, we'll just make it a catapult.

Here is an image of our design, images of our work will be posted on a later date.

Trebuchet

This term we are making trebuchets!
Well... Catapults if we can't get sling to work, but I am determined to!
We will be trying to get our trebuchets to throw a golf ball the furthest and have suggested a battle between classes where we try to know down each others forts.
The one restriction that we have for this task is that the main structure of the trebuchet is allowed a maximum height of 550mm.
The unit sounds like a lot of fun, I have teamed up with Charli and today was our first day in the workshop.
 We have glued and nailed together our base, and next lesson we will be starting on the main structure of the mechanism.

Pro Desktop

Today we had a reintroduction to the CAD application Pro Desktop. It was a useful lesson as we haven't used the app in quite a while, and needed to be shown the ropes again. In this lesson, we created two different types of toy blocks with the letters A-F intruded into the sides.

Trees

This lesson we created the trees that are going to house the people and the other miniature trees that are going to be spread around the place to add a more natural feel to the resort and make it seem less empty. The trees were made out of corrugated cardboard and were simply hot glued together.
We also created what will be the canopies of the trees, they were made out of cotton balls dipped in blue paint.

Waterfall

The creation of the water fall took four lessons to complete.
On the first lesson, we routered out the lake/pool.
On the second lesson, we glued and nailed boards to the corner of the base and stapled chicken wire over the "cliff" and filled it up with news paper.
The third lesson was spent plastering the cliff with plaster of paris. It was quite fun to do, but a bit frustrating as one of the mixtures that we made was too watery and was drooping everywhere.
On the forth lesson, we started off by testing out how we could get the "waterfall effect" and ended up pouring blue paint on the cliff before covering it in hot glue and allowing it to drip into the lake. We then mixed PVA glue and the blue paint before pouring it in the pool and over the top of the original "waterfall" so that it would look like the water was actually coming from somewhere instead of magically appearing out of the middle of a rock.

Overall the waterfall ended up working out quite well, and we are quite pleased about the end result.

The Base and Idea for our resort.

So far in D&T we have created our base and come up with an idea for the theme of our resort.
We are basing our resort on the Star Wars Ewok Camp. There will be hydropower as there is going to be a waterfall next to the resort.

Management Plan

2013

This is the first lesson of Design and Technology this year.
We have just been discussing the Resort that we will be creating Eco Resorts.
I am exited to start the unit and can't wait to learn new techniques and solve problems.

T-Rex Design

I have chosen to make the T-Rex design for my mechanism. So far I have drawn out the shapes for the design, but need the size of my sheet of wood before I can put the dimensions on the design.
Today Charli and I glued together two pieces of wood for the body.

Summary of the term so far

This term we have been using the application 'Pro Desktop' which is a CAM program.
We have created cubes and learnt how to use features such as
-extrude
-project profile
-select face/edge/part
-shell
-round edges
-change colour
-constraints
-revolving
-etc.
we have created a remote, random cubes, water bottles and vases.

Questions

1.Choose 2 machines that you used in the fabrication of your desk tidy. With these machines in mind, outline WPH&S considerations that must be adhered to when using these machines. Include photographs of your chosen machines (OnGuard may be an excellent resource for this question).

Strip Heater
-Wear proper clothing
-do not touch the heating element of the strip heater
-do not leave strip heater unattended
-do not touch heated strip of plastic
-do not heat acrylic with paper/plastic cover still attached

Band Saw
-Wear proper clothing
-keep your hands and fingers atleast 3" away from the blade
-do not start machiene with blade touching the workpeice
-pay full attention to the machiene

2.The material you are using for your desk tidy is called Polymethylmethacrylate (ACRYLIC). It has specific properties and uses. Choose 2 other common polymers and in table form give their industrial name, common name, properties and uses.

Industrial Name	Common Name	Properties	Uses
Polybutadiene	PBD	Highley resilient synthetic rubber	Tyres
Polybutylene	PB	Strong enough to replace metal and also flexable	Pipes

3.Extrusion, injection moulding, compression moulding, vacuum forming and laminating are examples of common manufacturing processes used with polymers (Plastics). Choose one process and with the use of diagrams and bullet points outline the process.
Vacuum Forming

Vacuum Forming is a process where a piece of thermo plastic is heated and placed over a mould before being vacuumed around the mould, forming the shape of the mould.


4.Extension Work - Using processes acquired from your maths lessons, calculate the amount of acrylic sheet that your FINAL desk tidy represents. Show all calculations; answer needs to be in square metres. 

L=46cm
W=20cm
A=LxW
=46x20
=920cm squared
therefore my whole desk tidy was 920cm squared of black acrylic

Desk Tidy

So far this term I have practically completed my desk tidy.
Problems encountered are;
-no white out
-wrong angle of a line so my tidy was off balance
-no white out
-one line being longer on one end
-no white out

All of the problems that I encountered were all fixed and my desk tidy looks great!

It says barcode because before i bent it it looked like one.

Today during the lesson, I got majority of my desk tidy completed, I just need to do one more bend... and balance it out. On of the bends of my desk tidy wasn't bent properly, so now it is off balance and unable to stand flat.
The tidy is currently within the limits of the task, but next lesson I need to re-bend the one that is wonky.

Video Report

-you have to really know the material your dealing with
-drawing should show all details
-working models make explanations easier
-look out for different shapes, sizes and textures
-get a clear brief
-design is very important
-good design should be expected

Plans For Desk Tidy

Things the desk tidy needs to hold

-iPad
-Paper
-Pens
-Erasers
-Blu-tack
-Money
-A book
-Headphones

Tools For Acrylic

Acrylic cement
-Melts and hardens quickley.
-Hardest at about the 1 hr point

Strip heater
-Stronger than glue
-Very quick
-Professional look

Oven
-160 degrees
-Bends around anything
-Turn on 10min before using

Spade drill
-Always clamp acrylic down
-Doesn't chip plastic
-Don't push down hard

THE idea of the CENTURY

I really like this design and think that I might remake it I'll just need to figure out the measurements.
For the design to fit the brief, I'll need to squish it up a bit, but I think that it'll work.

More Ideas

More Ideas