I realized last night that I have been working on the ME 72 robots for too long. I noticed that it was starting to take over my life when I spent every minute of my free time (between 8am and 5pm) in the ME shop. But last night was when it went too far...
Thursday and Friday the shop was being closed early (3:30 and 3, respectively). A comment was made earlier about the ME shop in relation to the honor code. It is true that all of the buildings are closed at night, and that students can get keys (or swipe card access) to the buildings where they have night classes or where they have labs. The thing with the ME shop is that there are lots of expensive, dangerous machines. Therefore, no one (not just students, but also other professors and faculty) can be in the shop unless the Shop Instructor is there. If he has to leave even for 5 minutes, everyone has to stop machining until he returns. In one sense it is an issue of safety. Most of the machines involve spinning blades designed to cut through metal, and so none of them would have any trouble cutting through flesh and bone. The other reason is because, while the machines are very powerful, they are very easy to operate incorrectly and damage. Not only are they expensive to replace/fix, but there are only a limited number of each tool/machine, so if you break it, it kind of ruins it for everyone. So, the shop is only open from 8am - 5pm, or when the Shop Instructor can be there.
Anyways, back to Thursday. I went into the shop right after lunch, but that still only left us with 2 and a half hours to do work. Will had a class or meeting to go to at 2pm, so we knew that by the time we set up and prepared to work, we would only have a little bit of time. Regardless, Will managed to make a set of 4 stand-offs and I managed to make the paddles and attach them to the wheels. The only thing left to do was put on the tires. It was a relatively successful day in shop. Thursday night I was up until 3am working on my ACM set. This does not usually happen to me. I always go to bed at midnight and wake up at 8am. 8 hours. I cannot function with anything less than 6 hours, and seeing as I only got 4 hours of sleep that night, I was not myself on Friday. The only reason I was up so late doing my set was because I was busy with classes, working on ME 72, and then we had a basketball game against Cal Lu. I didn't get to work on my set until 10pm, and then as it got closer to midnight my efficiency began to decrease exponentially. So, by the time I quit working at 3am, I was too tired to function. I was starting to think that the derivative of x^r was rx^r, and the second derivative (r^2)x^r... ya... so I really cannot function past my "bed time" :)
Friday morning I finished my set, scanned it to the computer, and submitted it online before going to class. Technically I did not have to finish the set until 5pm, however I knew that I had basketball at 4pm, and that I was going to be working down in the ME shop up until then. So, I had to get it done before class. During lunch, I met up with Will and found out that she still had to finish her ACM set, and so she would meet me down in the shop as soon as she finished it. I knew that if nothing else, we had to make the rubber tires for the wheels. The rubber takes at least 24 hours to harden and set, so we had to get that rolling (no pun intended..haha). I went down into the shop and mixed the rubber goop (which looked like and had the consistency of marshmallow syrup) with the catalyst and slowly let it run into the syringe. So, this may be a little hard to describe, but when I go down to the shop on Monday I will try to remember to take a picture of the set up. Basically, the wheel sits down in a circular mold which adds about half an inch to the diameter and has the same thickness as the plastic wheel. Thursday I drilled a few holes around the wheel, with slits coming out of each one. The purpose of this was so that the rubber tire would stay attached to the wheel. Basically, when the rubber is injected into the holes, it fills them and seeps out through the slit to form a tire around the outside of the wheel. So, when the robot is rolling around on the cement during the competition, the tire will not accidentally slip off.
So, there I was, getting ready to inject the wheel with the rubber concoction. It was at this moment that the Shop Instructor looked at me and asked where Will was. I told him that she would be coming down soon. It was then that he told me it was best to have 2 people working on the wheel and mold, otherwise I would have really strong hand muscles by the end of the day. I laughed to myself. How hard could it be to push the rubber goop through a syringe and into the mold. He must just be underestimating my strength. He must not know that I am on the basketball team. I have faced much tougher opponents than a syringe of rubber. Well...it was I that underestimated the syringe. It was so hard! I pushed and pushed and only a little bit came out at a time. If you have ever worked with glitter glue before (or puffy paint) it was kind of like that, but much much more concentrated. I kept having to take the paper clip and unclog the tip. Finally, about an hour passed by, and I was about half way, to 2/3 of the way done. The shop instructor came to check on my progress, only to find me pushing with all my might with no results. my hands were red raw and I was tired. He took the syringe from me and then promptly told me that the rubber had started hardening while in the syringe, and so that was why it was nearly impossible for me to squeeze it out.
Good Game!
Basically, we had to throw that syringe away and then mix up a new batch of rubber. However, there were no more cups left to mix the rubber in. So, I quickly threw off my apron and ran upstairs and across the courtyard to the C store (Caltech Convenience Store). I grabbed a bag of red plastic cups, swiped my card, and ran down to the shop. I then mixed the marshmallow goop with the catalyst, except this time I put in a little less catalyst, so it would react, and therefore solidify, more slowly. That helped immensely. As I was just finishing filling up the mold, Will walked in the door. But, it was already past 3pm, so we could no longer use the machines. I had to head off to basketball anyway, and there was nothing more for us to do. So, we made an outline of what we needed to do and when they needed to be accomplished by.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, I had only had 4 hours of sleep the night before. I was planning to get sleep as soon as I could, but this would not be until after basketball, dinner, and then the jazz concert. So, one of my teammates plays the trombone in the Caltech Jazz band, and that night she had a big concert at 8pm. We all like to support each other, so a bunch of us decided to go and listen to her play. Not only was she playing jazz, but Flea (from the Red Hot Chili Peppers) was there to play with them, and the concert was free! So, the auditorium was packed! Now, I am not a big fan of jazz, and so I once the concert started, I leaned back to "rest my eyes" and listen to the music. What actually happened was I started dreaming about ME 72! I tried to focus on the music and think about happy things...but instead every time I started to drift off I would find myself either imagining I was in the shop working on a part, or out at Millikan Pond wondering at what angle the ramp needed to be so that our robot would be able to get out of the pond! Nooooo! Why?!? I was supposed to be relaxing and enjoying the music, but instead I was subconsciously thinking about ME 72.
It has now gone too far. ME 72 consumes my days and nights!
