The Semester in Review - Michael Czarnecki

This semester turned out to be a pretty good time in ME-250. Although the class was extremely challenging at times, I was able to learn a lot about the manufacturing process and the importance of time management. I will say that I was very fortunate to be on a team where all the members equally contributed and we were all committed to a single goal: doing well in the slot-bots competition. I was very pleased with our third place finish and have come to see that all the hours I put into this project were really worth it. I, and I think all my teammates, had a really good time this semester.
Before this semester, I considered myself a pretty hands-on kid; I have grown up using tools my whole life. However, I learned more this semester about machining then I ever thought possible in such a short time. I think that this is due to the sink or swim aspect of this class. We received some basic training and Bob, Marv, and the whole ME-250 staff were always very helpful, but in the end we really had to figure it out by ourselves. I am glad that I got the opportunity to work on heavy-duty machines like the mill and the lathe. These machines are essential in the manufacturing process, and I feel as if I have received some experience using them that will give me a great advantage in the future. The same goes for the design process. We were stressed with the importance of critiquing designs and weighing them compared to other options. In my opinion this was one of the most important parts of the semester because when push came to shove if your design wasn’t good enough, then you didn’t have a chance of winning the competition.
The team aspect of this project was vital. Within my team, we needed each other’s advice and feedback when designing and building our machine. It was truly a collaboration of all four member’s creativity and skill. We really learned a lot about the importance of time management. When we began machining, we would often all worked on a single part. This often led to one or two people working and the rest of our team just watching. We quickly learned that to get this project done we had to split up. Saying this, it also became more important that we stayed in touch giving others updates of our progress. This was especially important when we would slightly modify a part. We had to make sure all the teammates knew if something was changing and what the impact of those changes would be on other components of our design. We also learned the importance of doing it right the first time. Too many times we would have a part half made then slightly mess it up; this was a huge waist of our time. I think I learned how critical it is to measure twice just to confirm you were doing it right. The team aspect also brought forth a couple of instances of working with someone I didn’t always agree with. I learned that there was no time for drama this semester. We openly debate subjects instead of arguing allowing the team to continue working in a positive manner.
I think this course was well constructed in the sense of going through the design process then allowing us manufacturing time to concentrate on our machines. At times, especially early in the semester when the FRDPARC tables and CAD assignments were overlapping each other, things got a little hectic. I think, if anything, this course might need to ease up on the density of work. Saying this, I look back and see every part of the design process as a critical component to my knowledge and see little you can cut from this class. One suggestion would be to ease up on the Homework sets we had. I found that often these had the least relation to the final project and sometimes were unnecessarily difficult.
Students were required to perform at his or her best all semester. I think that a key component to giving it your all was staying focused and hopeful. Sometimes, I saw students get defeated by the workload, but you just had to accept it and work through it. I think that I truly dedicated myself to this project; however, that I could have improved my performance by not being lazy in the design process. At times, my teammates and I just thought that some things were just too hard to do and that we could make due by doing it “unprofessionally”. This really comes to mind when we were mounting the gears to shafts. We originally used epoxy to secure them, but as we began to test our machine the bonds would break. We had to keyhole the gears and shafts in the last week of the course, which ended up being rather stressful and time pressing. Also, I think that I had to take the analysis more seriously. I mean we made good analysis for certain components of our machine, but not all of them. This was clear when the gearbox of the double gearbox broke during the competition due to over loading it. I think that the whole class needed to do this seeing that three of the final four teams in the competition had broken machines.