Transforming Lathe Technologies

Info coming soon!

Tonight after class, I briefly met with Dr Bernard Amadei, this years Drexel University Engineer of the Year. He is the engineer who started Engineers Without Borders! Nonetheless, it was a very rewarding evening, with wine flowing freely, Dr. Amadei regaled Dave and I (more Dave then I) with stories from around the world. Apparently he's had some close calls with local governments, and has been rescued by the CIA. He invited Dave and I to come work with him in Nepal on a project bringing water to villages so that the young girls whom walk back and forth everyday can instead go to school.

Dave and I went to a junkyard today, specifically Gianna's You Pull It in south Philadelphia. If you ever get a chance, go to a junkyard and walk around, it's really satisfying. We were on the hunt for parts which we could use to build our second prototype. Lathe V2 will be built from a simulated East African environment using information that we've gotten from our contacts in Tanzania. There is a lot of freedom as to what we can do using these parts! Since our design is not static, and was never meant to be, we can go and decide what we think would work best for a bed, headstock, etc, and each design will be unique. There are photos posted in the photos section, and we urge you to check them out! To celebrate this successful trip, Dave bought a captains chair from a minivan, and boy is it comfortable.

Josh and I sat down last night and cranked out the metrics. We found that our 3/8th inch diameter lag bolts will hold the pillow blocks in place without failing when a full load is applied to the headstock. We also found that we would need medium grade bolts in Africa -- which is an issue we'll need to figure out so that we can safely operate the lathe. Once we digitize the files, we'll post them in the Documents and Files section of the site.