Skip to content

1. Principles and practices

This week I worked on defining my final project idea and started to getting used to the documentation process.

Ideas

My first thoughts were: Make a machine that is capable of consuming used filament from 3D printers and recycle it into a new strand. The filament could come from material broken off from loading or unloading, or failed prints. We would also be able to add in bonus material to dope it with, like carbon nanofibers. This would be a great project to make, because I have first hand seen the amount of support material that can be used. Finding a way to reuse that into a new filament would greatly cut down on material costs and pollution. As someone who works in the public sector, both of those are admirable goals.

Precious Plastic is a company that has plans for some of these types of machines. I would like to do something similar. Pieces needed to be made would be the augur, extruder, heating devices, and the hoppers.

Second thought: A myoelectric prosthetic arm. Students at my school want to potentially make one for a community service project, so it would help out if I new how to do it before that happens. The students were hoping to do this as an outreach project to help people in need in less affluent regions of the world get an affordable, functional, prosthetic. By making them in the lab, they could be made for a fraction of the cost as those through insurance companies.

Here is a link to a thesis using an Arduino to control the prosthetic. Electronics would need to be made and tested, and the indiviudal pieces of the hand as well as the gearing and motor system to move them would need to be designed.

Third thought: I like homebrewing. Maybe make an instrument that you set the mash in and out temperatures, boil time, hop additions, and it does all of that before discharging everything into the fermentor where I add the yeast. The homebrewing process can be labor intensive, and this would help cut down on some of the heavier lifting you have to do to pour the wort in between steps. It could be set up with pumps to move the liquid in an automated fashion, and potentially even have a process to sterilize the whole system? On second thought, this seems like a lot of work.

UPDATE:

I went with none of these, and made a conveyor belt system!