The Split Bike Fork

Rebar

Monday, March 28th

Today we got a lot of work done. We cut all the pieces of rebar we need, we cut the bicycle fork in half, grinded the ends of the rebar, and began to weld the rebar onto the wheel. After the first few welds, the barrel looks like it rolls evenly! Next class we hope to finish the welding the rebar, and begin and finish welding the diamond shaped mesh onto the barrel.

Schedule

In the next upcoming weeks we plan on finishing our project. We've put together a schedule to follow to keep ourselves on track and to have a steady amount of progress throughout the course. So far we have our design finalized, the wheels grinded down and bend, and the rebar cut. Next working class we'll weld the rebar to the wheels. The class after that we'll come to an agreement on the exact design of the handle, and we'll cover the barrel with the diamond shaped mesh. And finally we'll construct and attack the handle, and our project will be done. After that we'll probably get it looked over by Donna, Evan, and all the other greenhouse staff. With more than three working classes available to us, and open shop hours I'm very confident that we'll be able to finish our project, not only on time, but early.

Model

Elliott was able to build a miniature model of our design. He welded wire between two washers making the cylinder body. For our actual we plan on using miniature bicycle wheels and rebar. We originally planned to just have the rebar welded to the wheels but after meeting with Evan he suggested using a wire mesh to cover the rebar, so that more of a pattern would be packed into the soil, that rebar alone wouldn't work. So for our model we wrapped wire mesh around the length of the cylinder. And plan to weld diamond shaped mesh around the cylinder or our soil tamper.

Final Design

After meeting with Evan, a worker at the green house worker, we were able to narrow down our design. We came to the conclusion that a barrel body, bar handle, and wire mesh exterior were necessary aspects to include to build the best possible soil tamper.