Hey Everyone,

The design for the spider toy has been going well, but I have hit a few design challenges that I am trying to work through. Plus senior design has taken a little more of my life than I would have liked it to over the past few weeks. I will be doing a few blogs and updates this Thursday, and weekend to update y’all on the progress and show you CAD and a physical model. My supplies are being shipped or have been purchased, so I have at least that going for me. Could maybe use some help from my minions this Saturday/Sunday or the next (if you gals aren’t totally busy too). I hope your guys projects are going well!

Update: May 4th, 2016

Happy May 4th everyone, and May the fourth be with you! (Star Wars Joke) I just wanted to let you guys know that during this week I did not accomplish a lot with my project, but I did procure a special toy called the Le Pinch Wind Up Toy purchased from Into The Wind on Pearl street in order to salvage the torque spring and “wind up” key. Since, I was told by the ITLL and IF machinists that it would be impossible with the tools and resources they had to fabricate a horizontal torque spring from my own stock of spring steel. The horizontal torque spring is a critical component, because that is how the user inputs their own energy to rotate and compress the spring connected to the drive train. Once the user releases the spring, the toy will move forward satisfying my dynamic requirements.

Photo of the le pinch toy before it was taken apart. I was trying to salvage the blue key and the spring mechanism attached to it.