Return of the Gyroscope


For the majority of this internship, I have neglected my second project with Larry in the machine shop, for which I has so much enthusiasm upon agreeing to do it. We have, however, been toying over how to go about creating this gyroscope between the original Youtube designs I found to a Solidworks homework design to a modified Solidworks file from a CAD community. We finally decided on the latter and modified the scale as well as the inner wheel, taking into account the stock we currently have in the shop and "reasonable" ranges for dimensions (see left).


We quickly jumped into the project and, fortunately, I have experience on a few of the machines in the shop, which helped ease instructional time. Nonetheless, I did have to do a few exercises on a new machine: a (programmable) vertical mill with positioning edge, setting the center for the object I'm milling, etc. Larry wanted me to get comfortable with the machine first before using its programming features. In my opinion, it's more enjoyable and easier to use than using the horizontal mill.

So far, so good! Next week, I'll come in and we can cut the 4 concentric rings from the aluminum stock using the programmable mill. Then, we can determine how we will attack the base of the gyroscope and use 440 screws for the bearings connecting the rings together.

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