Day 5
Interns at Factor e Farm started a couple new projects and made more progress on the others they started earlier in the week. As usual, some stragglers kept working on their projects after the workday officially ended determined to finish up as much as they could before calling it a day.
Morning progress
The main focus of Thursday’s morninig meeting was how to prepare for the upcoming CEB Press workshop happening June 17-19 at Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., and how to set it up so it will run as smoothly as possible.
Founding Director Marcin Jakubowski and the interns also reviewed what they did yesterday and planned for the day’s design session. They looked through the manuals that each person made for putting together different parts of the CEB Press, discussing how each could be improved and what was left to do.
The team also looked at a Google docs slideshow on Chris Chou‘s Wiki page that he created earlier in the week on “Gundam modelling instructions.”
Example of Gundam modelling instructions. Screen shot from slideshow by Chris Chou
Chris C. suggested OSE try using this style of instructions, which consists of exploding parts diagrams with arrows connecting which pieces will go together for each step, for the manual project they’re putting together now.
“It’s extremely clear, it lists out all the parts, it’s very easy to follow,” Chris C. said. “Any kid could build these complicated robot models with these instructions.”
Immediately after the meeting, the interns started working on the CEB Press part manuals again, as Marcin walked around checking on their progress and seeing who needed help.
Afternoon feats
After lunch, the interns and Marcin met again to plan for an hour. Then everyone “swarmed” the workshop for 30 minutes to organize shelves and sort tools, safety equipment and other items.
The interns then split up into smaller groups to work on different projects.
In the workshop, Chris Waters disassembled and cleaned the CEB Press solenoid valve, which controls the cylinders that make the machine move, in preparation for a time lapse on how the machine is reassembled.
CEB Press solenoid valve disassembled. Photo by Chris Waters
Close by Juan Bennazar and Clair Sprenger cut the steel for a second CNC Torch Table prototype and began bolting pieces together, documenting the process with photos and a time lapse. Jeff Adams, Brenna Fitzpatrick and Chris W. installed an emergency stop button on the Lasersaur laser cutter.
Intern Juan Bennazar cuts steel for the frame of a what will become CNC Torch Table Prototype 2. Photo by Chris Waters
Also in the workshop, Sam Turner fixed one of the welders with Marcin, while Michael Pendergast and Jason Shah welded wheels onto the bottom of a table in the workshop.
Gabriel Elkind hooked up another internet connection for other interns to use on the farm and made plans with Anthony Douglas for documenting how the CNC Torch Table works and how to use it. Anthony also continued trying to figure out how to program the Torch Table to pierce metal before beginning cuts.
Outside the front Hab Lab, Emily Dixon, Stephen Whiting and Graham Coffman put cob on the raised-garden bed walls they built the day before and filled the beds part-way with soil and mulching materials.
Chris C. spent the afternoon creating a slideshow on OSE’s plans for putting together the pool deck on Friday.
Great progress for first week. CEB Press overall instructional is becoming solid.