Standing the pressure

Surprisingly our foam board model in the back of the class with stood the weight of a mac book air.  Today Fletcher Freeman constructed the foam board model of the desk suspension system with the parts in the picture below me and landon compiled stats of how well the model held up.  It was able to hold up the full weight of the laptop with out falling.  There is a picture of the built model on Fletcher Freeman’s blog.  Landon Scott has a design review on his blog.  Next week we will bring together some supplies to start building the final desk.  My blog should have some pictures of the work next week along with the description in full detail.  Fletcher will have us bring in more foam board to construct other designs and have a better scientific description.  The laptop will be suspended off of the desk by 8 inches and can slide back and forth and side to side.  The desk should be made of wood and be able to hold up cables, the laptop, and a few pens or pencil.

Foam board

Today we played around with some foam board and made some models of the desk but due to time restraints we were not able to get many pictures.  The time ran short when I was researching the possible track systems.  I had lost the website as well and forgot the size of the track system.  So next week will most likely be a repeat with the missing information.  Fletcher had the idea that we have two platforms and the track systems connected to each.  There will be no leg room taken up from the design we settled on and we have final design for the actual desk in a while such.  If any flaws are found the desk will be modified into a better model and this new model will repeat the process.  I feel like Fletcher has really stepped forward and taken lead in the research and Landon has made more of finance advance.

Outside the Box

Today we had three breakthroughs, one about swivel hinges, one about track systems, and one about size.  Each of the members came up with one mine was the swivel, Fletcher’s was about a double track system and Landon came up with a size fixture that would be benefiting the customers writing space.  The new swivel system is like the one in a picture frame and it would hold the laptop to the desk.  The size reduction made the desk space increase by 5 inches.  With the new double track system there is more motion range and there is a video of it on Fletchers blog.  In today’s work we drew on a white board and had a brain dump session pouring out ideas about the desk extender.  After today we will begin the final picture of the project.  I had a good idea about a material list that included PVC pipe and particle board, but I forgot to research prices.  We were able to find prices on some items and they were all under 10 dollars.  The desk will be of the desk by 8 inches.  Next time we will work on the clamp system and a final picture.

The track system final

            This week I decided to find a way to make the track system more stable and keep it over the desk with out touching it.  This way we can make more room on the desk for paper the computer is closer, and it is not in the aisles and the room is takes up is limited.  The only problem with the design is that there needs to be more room in front of the desk and behind it.  The great thing about this design is it will make the desk more stable the room on top of the desk.  Today was a very productive day and we had to take measurement's.  We found a $7.99 track system and a few ways to limit cost.  We are going to vote on the final system later.  We will find a new way of suspending the table that holds the laptop and then we can decide how the desk will be able to slide around on the desk.