Leonardo Cano Medina STEAM Capstone Project Portfolio
The Stinger, Spare Airless Tire,
ABOUT
My whole project started with the idea of replacing the normal common air inflated tire and create a airless tire. With that in my mind I started to research accidents percentage due to tire exploding, that was the last thing that motivate me to created my project.
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With that being said, my first idea was to create something digital. I chose to do it this way because all of my previous skills were digital, so I didn't have any experience with the 3d printers and laser cutting. I was going to use Solidworks to create the visual, but Mr.Hunter introduce me to this new program call Fusion 360, which was the same thing as Solidworks just more accessible and simpler. i learn enough of the program to dom my models and presented. In total it took me three weeks to learn everything I needed and about one or two weeks to create a model of what I was going to do.
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After spending a good two months working on my project the professional review night was around the corner, and I have to say I was nervous and not really happy with my project. The night went really well I got a lot of good feedback that I use for next prototype. I want to thanks the two assign previewers, sorry I forgot there names, but one of them give me the idea of making a airless spare tire instead of trying to reinvent the tire.
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After the night, I got back to redesign my whole project. I learn two things from that night, One people seems to be more attracted by physical things rather than digital things. It's always nice to have something that they can physically see and play around with it. Second thing is that if I wanted to make something realistic like my project I have to tackle it from a different POV, thanks to my reviewer for giving me the idea, I created Prototype two, which consisted of a Spare Airless tire. Not everything went down the whole with my whole initial project since I need to design cylinder that can fit inside the tire, this cylinder will add extra support and rigidity for the wheel.
After designing and successfully printing the cylinder I tested and it fit great. I was able to fit eight of this cylinder in my small tire. At first it looked great but it was sturdy enough to hold weight. After making some research I found out that farmers use tires that are full of some type of foam that prevents air leaks. I decided to incorporate that idea to my project and I use isolation foam to simulate that foam, which actually supreme about isolation foam was that it hold up really good to bounces, I dropped a few time and it hold the space and it bounce.
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My final project was a tire with eight 3d print cylinders, full of insulation foam. Named the Stinger.
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Contributors
I will like to say thank you to this following people, without them my project could not be turned out the way it did.
01
Mr. Reedy
Thanks to Mr. Reedy for giving the amazing idea of creting a spare airless tire.
02
Ms. Jill
Thanks to Ms. Jill I was able to create a poster that was able to captivate the attention people.
03
Mr. Hunter
Thanks to Mr. Hunter for teaching me how to use the 3d printer to be able to print my funky cylinders.
Project Thoughts and Consideration
The final goal of my project was to create a alternative wheel for a spare tire that needed no air in it to function. My project since the beginning to the end loom very different because I wanted to tackle it in a digital way not in a physical way. My first design and idea was to make a small scale of the tire and focus more on the render design of it using Fusion 360. After, the review night I found out that digital stuff doesn't really work that well with my project. The, my project switch form being a digital to a physical thing. My original idea was to grab a wheel and drill holes in it and use pvc pipes to use as support. But i realize that it wasn't to work du that it needed something to hold with the wheel, so I design and printed a special cylinder that was able to fit in the the tire and most importantly it didn't fall. The it got filled with isolation foam for extra support. Basically my project went from something on the screen to something made in real life. Overall my project was finish but t wasn't tested, First I made a drop test causing the 3d print cylinders tk brake, this was expected since it was basically made out of plastic.
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The most challenging part of my project was actually make it, you really have to overcome yourself and get out of your comfort zone, you need to have that mentality that your project is going to fail and that's ok, because that the where you learn from your mistakes and try to make it better each time. The second challenge I face was Fusion 360, since it was a new program to me that I have never heard of, I had to learn it and actually spend some time to make the stuff I want it to make it. The third challenge I faced was getting stuff done on time, I over estimated the amount of time that I have to actually complete stuff so when it came to the last week of working in project I came up with different ideas that I could have added to my project but could due to the time that I have left.
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The most rewarding thing that have come from this project is definitely the experience you get when people come up to you and ask you question about your project, see the interest in their face and the ideas the have to give you that can make your project much better. Another rewarding thing that I got from this project is that I force myself out of my comfort zone and try new things, thanks to this project I learn how to use Fusion 360, something that a lot of normal people don't even know how to use.
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During years in the STEAM program I have learned a lot of stuff, from skills to stuff that I didn't know I was capable to do. Definitely it was a unique experience in my case. But something that really is going to stick with me is that I should get out of my comfort zone and explore more thing that are not familiar with. Something that this class made well for me is that the more time you fail the more you learn. Failure is not something to be scare of, you should use that failure to learn form your mistakes and keep creating a better version of the thing your doing or even you. ​
Lets not forget about all the skills I learn through STEAM, from soldering to Sonic Pi. I might not use all these skills in the future but I definly will look bak at it and I will impress myself with what I was or I am avle to do if I put the time and efort to do it.
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