Renderings: The Sequel

I've added one final touch to the model before we start milling. We had an idea to allow the Sunflower to tilt and follow the sun: the flower itself is attached to a wooden base, which then rests on a large arc. The arc acts as both a support and a pivot, with holes like those in the arm pivots for adjustability.

Ideally, it should allow the flower to follow the sun through most of its journey through the sky. I'm not entirely sure the arc can support the weight of the whole flower, but we'll see. It's not the most critical of components at the moment – what good is something to mount a Sunflower when one doesn't have a Sunflower; needless to say, we're going to focus on making the Sunflower first.

The Proposal

For simplicity sake, as I do research I will also write parts of the proposal, nothing special at the moment, just very rough drafts to get the main points/ideas/concepts down.  Team Secretary is reporting for duty.

Mission Update

Periodically I shall report back in with progress regarding my mission of accumulating research, and this is one such report.  Remember I mentioned how knowledge is power?  Well, if knowledge is power, then at the current moment I can't even lift a single sunflower ...
However, I shall not be detoured, I shall not fail this mission.

Mighty Movin'

In the interest if preserving his sanity – and his hearing – Mr. Martin proposed moving the FMS (the gigantic, half-ton milling machine) into the machine shop at the back of class. It's easy, except not at all.

Two hours and fifteen people later we finally got the FMS cozied up in its new home. Unfortunately, all that physical labor siphoned away our time, and we were left with none to mill with.

Milling begins tomorrow.

Hopefully.

Rendered Speechless

After slaving for days over a dusty keyboard, our final SolidWorks model is done. Unlike the last one – which was as much of a brainstorming as a model – this model contains the actual parts we're going to be milling out on the FMS.

Sunflower™ – Final Render

Apart from the mirrors, the whole thing (mostly) is made of 1/2" MDF (Medium-Density Fibreboard), an extraordinarily cheap and environmentally kosher wood. To add strength and thickness to the parts, each component is actually several MDF sheets layered together and connected by hammering wooden dowels through them. The arms will be milled in their full length and stuck together to add thickness. The base, on the other hand, is staggered: each layer is made up of four identical pieces, but consecutive layers are offset 45° from one another (ensuring that the seam of one layer corresponds with the solid part of the next).

Eight layers of 1/2" MDF compose the base, while three layers make up the arms; all these pieces have holes cut in them in order to reduce the weight, with the exception of the middle layer in the arms (which is solid to give us somewhere to screw the mirrors into). The pivot points the arms rest in are 3/4" MDF, while the axel that holds them there is 4cm hollow steel pipe we found lying around in the Tech Lab (yay recycling!).

Next week, I begin turning these Solidworks parts into the MasterCAM toolpaths that will be milled. Allonsy!

Forces Assembled!

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I am done with SolidWorks!

The final assembly is done, and it looks nice, which is surprising, because none of us actually thought until now that it would look like anything in particular at all. I'll be posting renderings of it soon, and drawings a little later than that –because pretty pictures take precedence over technical drawings, right?

From this point, all the actual designing of the Sunflower is done; all I have to do is import the files into MasterCAM and toolpath them, then it'll be on to the mill for a little good old-fashioned carnage.

Sunny is born

Inspire award

This was a previous project that showed us the simple concept of mirrors using the sun to produce large amounts of heat it is a little beat up, but it is a great teaching tool.

The flower is blooming

Open Petals

Closed Petals

Knowledge is Power

Having a general idea of what we want to do is nice and all, but if we don't have any information to back it up it might all be for naught.  As the internet ninja, it is my duty to collect extraneous information that may prove useful in our project, so today, I begin my mission.

Arc flower

The model is incomplete, but is shaping up quite nicely.

Welcome The Sunflower

Welcome to our blog, which will also serve as our journal for our project.  Within this journal we shall chronicle the development and creation of our novel idea – The Sunflower.

So what is The Sunflower?
In essence, a very cool mirror.  The goal is to developed a system for efficiently focusing the sun's energy, allowing for it to be harnessed and used for various tasks.  The idea is for the system be independent.

Is the system independent?
Independence deals with two elements primarily – efficiency and adaptability.  The Sunflower concentrates a large amount of energy into one location, allowing for easy harvesting of energy.  The Sunflower will also have modules designed for specific tasks, such as water distillation, cooking, and electricity generation.  Essentially, the system will allow for independence.

The Sunflower is currently a theoretical idea, but within the next couple of weeks we aim to turn this novel idea into a practical one with real world applications. We welcome and encourage you to join us on our journey toward this goal.