Menzieshill High School, Dundee. Visit 1.

My name is Hannah Rae, I'm a Product Design & Innovation Student in my 4th year.
I visited Menzieshill High School in Dundee on the 18th of February 2010. The Engineering Club at this school is held at lunchtime and so I was present in the school from 11am until the end of the day.
The teacher, Mr Jack Waghorn, and his pupils and colleagues have been very busy and have already finished building the machine. It is now fully functioning and we got to work getting some of the kids to design simple shapes to try some quick builds.

The machine took roughly 24 -26 hours to build. This was about 8 days of working 3 - 4 hours a day on the machine.

The sheer volume of parts of the machine was the biggest challenge. Also as some of the parts are quite fragile there were one or two breakages. These were remedied with glue and pressure and do not seem to be affecting the machine at present.
Getting the top platform to remain level was a difficult task at first also.

The easiest part of building the machine was said to be setting up the corners of the frame. This task was found to be simple due to its repetitive nature. The staff and pupils found that once the machine was finished it gave them a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. It took a lot of concentration to build.

It has been reported by Mr Waghorn that the 3D PDF file provided in the kit was OUTSTANDING and very helpful to all of those involved in putting the machine together.

Problems currently being experienced with the machine are:
* The machine can be a bit jumpy building parts with thicker walls

* Several nuts and bolts have shook off of the machine during a build and had to be replaced after the build was made. However, the build was made so it did not affect the machine's function.

*the PLA material has been clogging up the extruder when set up as directed onsite. Could a higher melting point be required?

* During a manufacture of Walt Disney's head, the build fell over 8 hours into production causing a mass of spaghetti-like plastic to be produced.

* The fan does not seem to be coming on during building. They have taken to opening the window during builds to help the plastic cool. Does the fan come on on its own?

Questions which the club would like to ask are:
* For information regarding the competition and what will be required of them.

* What, naturally, they could win?

* And if they could get a poster of the machine to put up in their corridor to demonstrate to parents and visitors the function of the RapMan?

The club are very capapble and very enthusiastic. Other activities going on in the school are equally impressive and all students are very knowledgable and capable with CAD. I look forward to visiting them again next month with more information for them!

Hannah Rae