Dec. 15, 2015

       A little while ago, our team visited the company JennerJahn's, an Internationally known company.
 Curtis and Kyle lead us on an interesting tour, showing us how their machines worked and how they are made. They showed us how they animated their designs before they completed them, and they showed us the complete internal workings of their machines Curtis and Kyle did a fantastic job of explaining how everything was put together and how it worked as a whole. It was a really fun experience and we're very grateful for getting the chance to learn about this awesome company!

       Here's a robot joke to brighten your day.

          Person A: Why was the robot angry?

          Person B: I don't know, why?

          Person A: Because someone kept pushing his buttons!

December 1, 2015

Today we worked on getting ready for Build Season!! Some students cleaned up our workshop, while others worked on strengthening their skills in their sub-teams. The Animation team started working on their storyboard for the Safety Animation. The Programming team worked on learning the basics of Labview basics.

We can't wait for Build Season to start and all of the fun projects that will come along with that!

November 24th 2015

       This week our lead mentor has continued teaching a group of students how to operate our CNC mill. They worked on a piece for holding tools. We are getting a good start on the build season ahead.

       A CNC (Computer Numeric Control) mill is a mill controlled by a computer. Our CNC is precise to 1/10,000 of an inch, which allows us to make parts much more exact than anything done by hand. The CNC runs on G-code. One way to machine a part is to create the G-code "conversationally" (manually telling it what to do). The other option is to create a part in CAD (Computer Aided Design). Then we give that part to a specific program that will automatically create the G-code for running the CNC.

CNC lesson

     
       Some of our former students came back for a team meeting. It was a blast seeing some of our former students again!!

Nov. 17th 2015

       Today in the computer room, one of our mentors, Jordan, and the animation team began filming the parody video with a student acting for test shots. Also, they continued brainstorming for the safety animation video.

     

        In the machine room, a student and mentor finished a five drawer cabinet and repaired two   

       chairs.

   

November 5, 2015

  On November 5, 2015  USFIRST PhyXTGears Team 1720 took a plant tour of Littler Diecast Corporation in Albany, IN. There were 26 students and mentors present for the tour. President, Mr. John Littler, and two other employees divided the group into three parts to see the die casting process, machining area, and shipping area.
  Die casting is a sophisticated foundry process by which 1220 degree aluminum metal is forced into a steel die at high pressure to form a near net shape part. When the casting is removed from the die, it is cooled with water and then placed in a trim die. This removes the runner and overflows from the parting line of the casting.
  The casting can go in several directions based on the customer needs: 1. It can be machined. 2. It can be vibratory finished. 3. The casting can be impregnated to make it tight. 4. It can be powder coated, etc. or any combination of these secondary operations.
  Littler Diecast is a major sponsor of Team 1720. We appreciate his support and interest in out team and the chance to see his manufacturing operation.