ME 250 gave me valuable exposure to various fundamental manufacturing and machining techniques. Though I have often tinkered on small mechanical projects before, this initial design and manufacturing course has allowed me to operate various core manufacturing machines including mills, and lathes. Not only has the experience made me a fundamentally competent operator of these machines, more importantly it gave me the opportunity to more fully understand the abilities and limits of these manufacturing machines. For a brief example, I learned that to machine an approximately 20” slot in a 1”x1” aluminum tube which our design called for, the only proper way to do that is to use two vices on the mill table, using one at each end to secure the part. Overall, my involvement in the manufacturing of a slotbot gave me a valuable foundation to learn from in my engineering career.
Most of the lessons learned about designing came after manufacturing and assembly were well under way. The complete design and manufacturing process gave me valuable lessons and experiences on how to tolerance designs and how to make designs easier to execute. For example, when making small parts that contain fastening holes or slots, make sure that the LMC leaves adequate material to maintain design integrity. Using my experience, it is clear that an easy way to overcome that hazard would be to leave only a positive tolerance on the part’s overall dimension. Having to create a manageable yet complex machine gave me invaluable and even some intangible engineering experiences and an enlightened understanding of designing and engineering.
Team work was an important aspect of ME 250. The nearly complete integration of team work into the course taught me that I must rely on my teammates. To best accomplish the required tasks, the team should play to the strengths of each team member, whether skewing the entire tasks towards the teams cumulative spectrum of strengths, to delegating tasks that best suit each team member. The team experience also reinforced the importance of clear and concise communication and planning between the team members. Since team work is an integral part of modern engineering the team experience in ME 250 was a valuable experience to better prepare me for a mechanical engineering career.
Though the ME 250 course as a whole was helpful and informative, there are areas where it could be improved. At the beginning of the course several weeks were used for the “creative process”, however, now, in retrospect, those several weeks could have been better utilized by focusing on the spectrum of mechanism that allow those “ideas” become reality. There might be a benefit from spending some tome on the creative process; however it can be abbreviated from its current time allotment in the course schedule. That extra week or two would then be of great benefit to the team portion of the course, allowing the work load of that section of the course to better correlate to the progression in the course timeline. Then a final frustration with the course would be the dual motor gear box. Its performance was a deflating disappointment for my team, and evident in other groups’ performances, the class as a whole. My team’s design had heavily relied on its speculated robust nature, and then in the last week, when assembly was in full swing it became evident that it was going to underperform, but at that point there was no time for recourse. Now as my team was finishing the final bill of materials, and tabulating a complete cost of the bot, the inferiority of the double gearbox can be easily seen when it was noted that the double gear box cost approximately half that of the other two motors, and two motors and gearboxes are included in the price. Despite this last minute disappointment, overall, the ME250 course was very helpful and educational.
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