Day 12: Parts arrive

All of our parts orders came in today. Some of the items we ordered in small quantities to see if they would fit our needs. Nothing was drastically different than what we thought, so we're full steam ahead with our design.

The shooter prototype switched from the kit HiGrip wheels which were eating up the ball (Build Tip don't shot with those wheels) to 8in Kit wheels (2011 kit). The new wheels made for a much smoother release and in turn upped our distance by 10+ feet. This was still shooting with a CIM 1:1 with the wheel. We are transitioning to using the CIM-Sim and two FisherPrice 0673s that we got in our orders today but we are having some problems with the gearbox. Namely if you face mount it you have to be extremely careful with the length of the bolts that you use. If you are not than the bolts will press into the center gear and bind the transmission. We'll change the mounting tomorrow and see how far we shoot.

The collector construction started today, we received the ABS pipe that we are using for the rollers it much easier to machine and isn't as brittle as PVC. We also received the conveyor material that we are going to wrap around the rollers. We still have to work out some of the mounting and getting the bearing to seat into the roller without the use of a lathe (I think it's going to be a Dremel job, you make do with what you have).

Brackets and other random pieces are getting cut we need to get the drive train on the ground soon. Hopefully by this weekend. We have all the parts just need to do a bit more machining.

We hope to have some more videos to post soon.

- Allen Gregory

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” - Steve Jobs 1998