Week 6

For week 6 we took a break from going to the regularly scheduled lab.  No worries, as this was an arranged break!  Because we had the majority of our materials gathered for week 6, we were ready to go with construction.  We had a variety of tasks to do, arranged in the bulleted list below:

• Use the Dremmel to make slots to hold the lenses in the wooden blocks
• Use the handsaw to create deeper slots in the wood
• Finalize the measurements of the plywood
• Cut out the metal to attach to the plywood

Here are some of the pictures showing the group hard at work!

Dan cutting out the aluminum

Andrew and Carl working diligently

This week was very important in getting our project closer to completion.  By the end of the two-hour work period, we had the final measurements on both pieces of plywood.  This allowed us to visit the machine shop to get the plywood cut.  Additionally, we had the blocks of wood cut out and ready to hold the lenses.  We also had the metal cut to the size of the plywood, meaning that we could attach it to the plywood once the plywood was cut out.  Although a sizeable amount of work still remained after the work period was done, this time as a group helped to make sure everyone was on the same page for the remainder of the design/construction process.