Color

On Friday we also built a system for the storage in the base if the second bucket.  Part of that system was wooden blocks that had to fit into slits.  We color-coded the slits and the wooden blocks for the language of design.

We used electrical tape to put strips on the wooden blocks which match the color on the basket component (not shown here)

-Annie

Hosed

This afternoon, we worked on the mechanism by which the vacuum is attached to the shell.  We worked on taking tubing and adhering it to the vacuum and the bag and soon realized that the system work would much better is the tube could be removed if a bag needed to be replaced or other parts broke.  We used nebulizers and coke bottle as threaded part and used epoxy and gorilla glue to adhere them together. 

Nebulizer part cut in half and attached to the vacuum sealed bag.

Coke bottle being attached with gorilla glue

Gorilla Super Glue!!

Vacuum with a nebulizer component attached.

Hoses with the a nebulizer component attached

-Annie

It's Friday!!!

Lots of progress was made today. In the morning, we finished our poster and permanently attached the vacuum.  We vacuum formed a plastic shell around the vacuum and drill holes in the plastic.  Then we put bolts through the holes in the bucket and the plastic to attach it.  We also worked on the mechanism for the storage in the second bucket.  We made a handle and attached it to the bracing.  The bracing sits in the buck and holds wooden supports in place which the other bucket with the vacuum and shell sits in.

The vacuum bolted into the bucket with the start button and the power jack the only parts showing.

This is the vacuum bolted into the inside of the bucket

-Megan

The Asiramolde

After Final Design Review on Friday, we thought a lot about the changes that were suggested to our group.   One was to use vacuum sealer bags instead of trying to make the thick inner lining shell out of silicon ourselves.  We had made 2 silicon sheets from the vacuum tested silicon and epoxied them together, but it was a time intensive and expensive process.  We bought vacuum sealer bags and on Tuesday we spend some time in lab playing with them.   We used the epoxy rubber to shorten one to fit in the bucket and will test that one later.

Silicon sheets joined with epoxy rubber

Silicon pocket

Vacuum Sealer bag shorten and joined with the epoxy rubber

Another part we've been working on is the case design.  The case was suppose to hold all of extra components (extra shells, nuts and bolts, and vacuum bags) but when the shell was attached to the bucket there was no was to access it.  We decided to use a double bucket design.  The bucket with the shell would sit inside another bucket and in the gap at the bottom the extra parts would be stored and easily accessible.

The slits the bucket would sit on

Two Buckets

Lowering one bucket into another

The buckets inside one another

-Megan

Re-name 'The Vac-Cast'

A major suggestion we had during Final Design Review, was that we had a poorly chosen name.  Out name, The Vac-Cast was not in interesting, we were making a vacuum casting system, and it wasn't in Spanish, the language of the potential users.  After spending some time on google translate, we chose the name El Elenco de Vacio.  We told Anna and Jose our name and Jose told us it didn't make any since.  He told us the world for vacuum is aspiradora, and the word for cast is molde.  We combined these word in AspiraMolde!

-Annie

Revamped Vac-Cast

We had our final design review on Friday and have been working on making changes.  We changed out bucket prototype to include a smaller hole for the vacuum so that users would not modify the vacuum components.  The vacuum is one of the core components that should not have degrees of freedom in the project. 

This is the smaller hole with holes for bolts to attach the vacuum

-Annie

From Bucket to Medical Device

During the Kit Design Review, a suggestion was made to our group to make the kit look more like a medical device.  If the users didn't appreciate the technology for its intended purpose they may use it for another purpose, like a trash can.  We decided a large part of making our kit look the part was transforming our 5 gallon bucket.  We have started the process where we painted the bucket.  We primed the bucket and then painted it white.  We designed stencils with "The Vac-Cast" to paint onto the bucket to made the device look more like a medical technology and not just a bucket.

-Megan