Air Motor-licious

I recently completed the project for ME12S, the Machining class I’ve been taking: an Air Motor (photos of mine). The class has really rekindled my love for making things with my hands, and I’m racking my brain for more fun things I could find an excuse to build.

So, what’s an air motor? Basically, you can hook it up to a compressed air line or a pump, and it converts that force into rotation. I couldn’t capture an image of it running, but it goes pretty fast. How useful is it? Not at all, really. But it gave me a chance to learn how to use Band Saws, Drill Presses, Lathes, Mills, and how to polish, measure, tap, and lots of other techniques on metal and plastics. Combined with my previous experience working with wood, I’m starting to feel fairly proficient at building things. Next, I need to find an electronics/circuits course!

Why am I interested in these classes? Several reasons, I guess. Firstly, it’s very satisfying to see a final product that you made with your own hands. I think that’s the biggest motivation. But it’s also a skill-set that I could always advertise that I have as an extra perk, and it will help in the case of a collapse of society, I guess. Lastly, I’m always a little jealous of engineers– with most engineering work, you can explain the benefit of what you’re doing in just a sentence or so. With my research (and believe me, I’ve tried), I can’t give an accurate impression of what I do in less than two paragraphs. And to add “why is this useful” adds another paragraph or two. So the accessibility factor is lacking. With a real product, at least you can point to it and say, “I did this.”

Anyway, does anyone else have any recent crafts handiwork to show off? (I know you do, shortspeedfreak– I’m sure of it)

One Response to “Air Motor-licious”

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Get your practice… as I’m wholeheartedly contributing to the collapse of society… one twisted mind at a time. Thats what I always I always thought that art was such a perfect counterpoint for a career in science. In science youare doing completely intangible experiments for (supposedly) a very specific idea. However in art you are doing soething very concrete for a completely nonspecific idea. It allows your mind to unwind, like a yoyo…. then reality sets in where you have to work for ludacris numbers of hours in the day and then by the time you get home your mind feels like overcooked spaghetti and youre so exhausted you couldn’t come up with an original idea if your life depended on it.

flakeytheleper - May 28th, 2008 at 10:41 pm

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