Side View

Final Day

Final Product 

Final Report

I have a lot of people to thank for the final outcome of my project. 60+ hours were spent between myself and many others who were willing to invest their time in the completion of my mechanical buffalo. My grandpa in the above picture dedicated his entire week to helping cut and provided welder for the project above. Not only that but he provide help in the mechanics when I found myself at a roadblock. 

Also my group dedicated their time to helping figure out what I needed for the project. Brendan Brown and Abdulnasser Al-zadjali were some of the best group mates I had the pleasure of working with in my college career. 

Joshua Westbrook also spent many hours in the shop when I was in class to help finish my project. I have learned a lot through these last 3 weeks that I feel will contribute more to my learning going forward than some of my early classes. I now have a considerable amount of machining experience under my belt and the overall process in finishing goals for a project. I have to thank my professors for providing the atmosphere for such a unique learning experience. 

The CAD files for the project 

Day 3 Part 2: More lessons to learn

Lack of Experience Can lead to bad assumptions 

Second Assumption: Everything will work out fine the first time 

To be truthful, I haven't worked on projects of this scale before, and I came into the project with high hopes that I can stay on schedule. Being the beginner I was, I didn't consider that there can be unforeseen issues that  can set back deadlines. This required everyday from 8-7 working diligently on getting this beast of a project done on time. 

Things Start coming together

 Taking advice from the other day I put on a shirt that wouldn't result in me getting a major sunburn again while I welded. We started on each issue at a time starting with the bike.

Day 3 Part 1: Learning Lessons

Not Listening to my grandpa

I didn't want to return to fixing the pedal problem until I made some progress on other parts of the project. The issues were frustrating enough yesterday (Sunday) that I wanted to gain some faith in what I have set forth on by accomplishing some major tasks. The day didn't start off on a good note. I was going to weld the steel legs together in L-shape pieces, but this required welding gear. My grandpa being an experienced metal-smith for many years had that on hand. He didn't have a welding helmet. So first we had to track down the proper safety equip before I could attempt to go anywhere with this buffalo.

This is when the not listening came into play. My grandpa insisted I use the leather arm protections since I had been wearing a tank top while working. In his words "That welder is going to give a sun burn as red as a cherry." Oh grandpa I need some color anyway. I didn't listen resulting in a pretty intense sunburn along both of my arms.

First Lesson Learned: Listen to people who have more experience than you

Day 2: Stumbling blocks

Headaches Begin

It was an early day from the get go, but I was confident that we could accomplish a lot since all of yesterday (Saturday) was spent gathering the material we needed for the project. Oh how naive I was at this point in the project. I had figured that the drawings I made to cut out the legs were going to speed the work along, which it did, however I hadn't put much thought into the overall mechanics of the bicycle that was going to sit in center of the drum. 

The Bicycle above was constructed using two different bike frames and we reused the pedals instead of going with a new set to fit inside of the barrel. 

First Assumption: Bike pedals that rested in the frame were level and rotated on the same axis

My first assumption had been wrong with the alignment of the pedals. Sadly this was apparent after having mounted the bike into the drum. That quickly changed the optimism of the day. Now the time spent trying to incorporate the original pedal system into the project will have to be scrapped and more time spent on many unknowns. 

Day 1 Manufacturing

Starting Out 

 On paper it seemed that everything was going to work out when building this project. Day 1 Saturday saw my grandpa and myself cutting out the oil drum to build the body of the buffalo. It was a simple cut to make for me and everything was on track. Instead of going with two legged support for the bottom of the drum it was determined that there needed to be more legs to keep the body balanced and not being tipped over. Most of the day however was spent trying to find the material needed for the project so things were a little slow. 

Project Aesthetic

›Industrial Recycled 

While doing research on my project, I ran across some interesting artworks that helped inspire my project. The above is a metal rhino constructed out of various gears and scrap metals. At first I didn't think much of the effect or meaning behind what the artist tried to convey. What draws this work apart from bronze sculptures or more realistic animal statues is that the artist doesn't hide the parts that have become the whole of the piece. Each piece has become intrinsic to forming the image of the rhino. 

Similar to the rhino, this horse sculpture doesn't try to cover the parts of the whole. It accomplishes this aesthetic with more varied pieces of metals that bring about a recycled natural look. This appearance will require some extra thought into how I layout the piece but the result might reflect all the eco-awareness that Boulder is all about.