Things With Wheels
One of mans first and most important
inventions is the wheel. I have been building wheeled buggies since I was 12
when I built my first soap box racer. Here we see some wheeled machines that I
have built.
Water sampling
drill rig. The task was to design and build an all terrain vehicle mounted, self
contained drilling machine. The well pipe was 1/2" black iron pipe that was
slotted with a laser to form the screen. The machine needed to support an
electric impact hammer 24 feet in the air, and then push on the pipe as it was
driven by a computer controlled winch that could both
raise the tower, and push on the hammer as it drove the pipe into the ground.
The tower was able to be moved left or right to
drill multiple wells without moving. The machine had an on board Honda generator that powered the hammer and
computer. The tower was raised off of the ATV deck
by a small hydraulic pump
that also powered hydraulic crimper and pipe puller tools.
Living on a 3.5 acre wooded lot in the country, it can be a task to run back and
forth to the shop when working on a project. I built an electric trike using a
front wheel of a motorcycle, and the rear end of a golf cart. The electric buggy
is powerful enough to haul a large trailer of wood, and is a convenient way to
run around my property, or down to a neighbors. The buggy runs on three deep
cycle lead acid batteries, and can run for several hours on a charge.
One
Halloween several years ago work was a little slow, so I built myself a costume
like no other. The robot seats one, has a helium neon laser and air jet
"self defense weapon" on it's arm, the arm has five degrees of motion
as well as a 3 finger gripping hand. The thumb can be shifted so it becomes
either an opposing thumb to one of the fingers, or it fits between the two
fingers for holding cans and bottles. The head rotates, and has a voice changer
(Darth Vader style) and a head mounted tilting video camera mount. I won $800 in
a local costume contest.
I coached two boys in how to build and program a Hacky Sack throwing robot for a scholarship contest at
BU. The robot had to drop the
hacky sack into a hole at the end of a 66" long track as quickly as possible,
run on only two AA batteries, then return to the starting line as close
to 15 seconds as possible without going over 15 seconds. The robot featured
22 farad super capacitors to supply the high current for the quick run to
the drop point, the PIC micro controller controlled motor speed and direction,
and also timed the run.
I acquired an old telephone truck with a cherry picker. It is a great labor
saver, but the onan gas motor that ran the hydraulics was in bad shape. I
converted it to electric, with its own solar charging system. I use it as a
small crane to lift things with a hand held remote control.
Home
Contact me: genesis1@snet.net
Water sampling
drill rig. The task was to design and build an all terrain vehicle mounted, self
contained drilling machine. The well pipe was 1/2" black iron pipe that was
slotted with a laser to form the screen. The machine needed to support an
electric impact hammer 24 feet in the air, and then push on the pipe as it was
driven by a computer controlled winch that could both
raise the tower, and push on the hammer as it drove the pipe into the ground.
The tower was able to be moved left or right to
drill multiple wells without moving. The machine had an on board Honda generator that powered the hammer and
computer. The tower was raised off of the ATV deck
by a small hydraulic pump
that also powered hydraulic crimper and pipe puller tools.
