Lab+4

=Home= =MORNING LAB=

(The cactus group asked to use some of our smaller pieces of bamboo we had been playing with in the early labs to see if the effects of the cactus juice on it and to see if it is possible to use the cactus juice as a glue with strips of bamboo. I showed them where our scraps were at and let them have a few.)

I noticed that one of the larger diameter rods on the bamboo rectangle is heavily split. The other large diameter rod also is split on one end. Remaking these pieces would be a time inefficient process so I believe we may be better off continuing to build and can epoxy the cracks together (not an appropriate technology but it will let us know if our design functions or if bamboo through joints are too weak).

I started today by taking a few measurements of my bike and looked online to see how high off the ground we need to support the bike without having the rear wheel touch the ground. Then I roughly figured out the lengths of the support arms and cut them a little long to be on the safe side.

I used a hole saw saw of the same diameter as the smaller rods of the rectangle to miter the ends of the support arms so that they would sit flush. All four support arms mitered and a rough test fit.

I made a small needle out of a bamboo splinter and saw how well I could bind the tubes together.

= = =AFTERNOON LAB=

Ethan made and attached the first triangle support to the frame, and we worked on creating the second triangle. First we measured the bike, in order to determine a good location for the second support.

This diagram represents an aerial view of the bike. What we had left to construct was the piece circled in red.

Ethan had already cut the second support pieces to the correct length, so we began by using a drill press to cut holes for lashing the triangle support to the base.



Next, we used a drill press to drill smaller holes at the top of the triangle pieces in order to lash them together at the top and actually form a triangular shape.

After assembling the basic structure, we checked the alignment and positioning with the bike again. We noticed that the bike chain rubbed on the triangle supports so we spent the last part of lab using a round file to sand down the sides of the supports a little so that the chain could pass by without contact.