WEEK 12 MECHANICAL DESIGN

This week's assignment was carried out entirely as a group activity.

Together with my classmates and our instructors, we worked at both the FabLab León and FabLab Ponferrada facilities, collaboratively developing all the project activities.

The complete work can be found in the documentation on our group page at the following address:

link to the group documentation:

Mechanical Design, Machine Design: CYLINDRATOR

My Individual Contribution

Before starting the work, my first task was to obtain a cutting tool for the lathe, as it was one of the few components that we could not fabricate ourselves.

Thanks to my job, I was able to contact a supplier and order the selected part from their catalog, since these tools are not commonly available in Ponferrada.

Choosing the cutting tool was challenging due to the tight schedule, as we only had two days to source it. My first choice was a wood-cutting tool, which would have been more than enough for our application. However, with such a short lead time and no local stock available, I turned to the industrial suppliers I work with in my job. I knew they could deliver on time, but it meant upgrading to a professional steel-cutting tool. Even though I selected the most basic model available, its specs were far beyond what we actually needed. But as the saying goes, better safe than sorry.

During the Machine Design week, I actively participated in the construction and assembly of our group project, which consisted of designing and building a functional lathe machine. My main contribution focused on the practical aspects of the machine fabrication, including preparing components, assisting in the mechanical assembly, and supporting the integration of the different parts of the system.

I collaborated with the team during the building process, helping to manufacture parts using digital fabrication tools and ensuring that components were correctly assembled and aligned. I also took part in testing the machine operation, identifying small issues, and making adjustments to improve its performance and reliability.

Since I was responsible for choosing the type of blade we would use, I also took charge of its assembly and installation, a task I carried out together with my teammate Beni.

This experience allowed me to better understand the complete process of building a machine from physical components, working collaboratively to transform a design into a functional device.