Dan's Individual Reflection

During the course of ME 250, I learned several valuable lessons:

• During the design process, it is very important to keep the manufacturing processes in mind, in order that you don't design yourself into a corner, so to say. Our lives in the machine shop probably would have been a little easier had we taken the limitations of our manufacturing processes into account. For example, we designed our driven axles to be press-fit directly onto the double-gearbox drive shafts after getting approval from one of the GSIs. However, upon taking our drive shaft and axle to the machine shop and explaining to Bob what we intended to do, we were informed that there was no good way to do that with the tools that are available to us. Once we finally managed to press-fit the two parts together, an unexpected speed bump in our assembly popped up: trying to assemble the double gearbox again, this time with axles press fit on the drive shaft. Had we foreseen these issues, we could have come up with a design to save us all of the grief associated with our original, simple design.
• Follow through with all trains of thought on the design table. It is very easy to come up with a simple idea that seems as though it will work brilliantly at first glimpse; but if the thought isn't followed through on, problems may creep up unexpectedly farther down the road. It is much harder to fix things at the end of the design process than in the middle of it. For example, during the manufacturing process, some of our machining endeavors didn't turn out the way we expected, so we would try to modify our design slightly in order to accommodate the manufacturing flaws – but sometimes, these changes caused much bigger problems down the road because we didn't think our changes all the way through (akin to the Abbe principle of error; small flaws early in the process can end up resulting in much larger errors farther down the road).
• I also gained valuable teamwork experience, especially because our team had a diverse skill set, with different strengths and weaknesses – and working efficiently as a team required effective time management. Since we had to spend many hours together, either working on the homework assignments, or manufacturing in the machine shop, we had to especially manage our personal time well, to ensure homeworks and studying for other classes were completed on time.

Since there were so many changes to the course from previous semesters, it is understandable that it might be a little rough around the edges – unfortunately, a little rough is an understatement. From the beginning, the course workload was exorbitant, matching perhaps what might be expected of a 5 or 6 credit class. To add to the stresses of the beginning of the year, there were an excessive number of homework assignments due, but due dates changed without being formally announced.

However, the biggest shortcoming of this class was the complete failure to meet my needs as a student trying to learn practical machining operations. Out of 23 available lecture days, only one was devoted to the manufacturing processes that we were to use, and this occurred AFTER we started working in the shop. Since ME 250 is often a student's first exposure to design and manufacturing, it was impossible for us to adequately take into account the limitations of the manufacturing processes during the design stage of this class because that information was not made available to us in a timely fashion.

In addition to the shortcomings of the timeliness of the machining lecture, a single lecture in a passive learning environment is not sufficient preparation to enter the machine shop. To better prepare students, there should have been more student participation and more lectures devoted to practical machining. For example, students could have been involved in making sample calculations for turning speeds with different materials and feed parameters, so that they would be aware of what would be expected of them to know before they enter the machine shop. Also, the lectures could contain specific examples on how to practically generate particular geometries that students might need, instead of vaguely covering what such an operation would be called, and leaving it at that.

Another way that the manufacturing instruction might be improved is having labs focused on manufacturing processes, and actually performing some machining operations during our scheduled lab times. That way, students can have some hands-on experience in the machine shop early on in the course in a smaller class size. The lectures extensively covered the design aspect of this course; some of the labs devoted to design could be refocused on manufacturing without sacrificing the quality of design instruction.

I could have improved my performance in this class by being more prepared when entering the machine shop (having calculations already completed, and have plans of what to do in case either the tool we need is unavailable or if the machining does not result in a part that will fit our needs), and having more patience while working with the machinery. The quickest way of manufacturing a part is not necessarily the best way to do so.