Well Windlass

Our project task this time was to create a delrin windlass that would span more than 12cm to lift a "bucket" (a filled 1 liter water bottle in this case) 10cm above the top of the well without shaking, buckling, or wobbling.

Brainstorm: In our initial brainstorm we came up with idea for stability: a bridge like design and a design with large triangles attached to it, ideas to increase the amount of string that was wound up per rotation: bunching up delrin rods and creating an axel

Brainstorm ideas

Our final design

Our final design took components of the "bridge" as support and integrated the axel into the side plates for extra support because we feared that if we rested all of the bottle's weight on a single delrin rod, the rod may bend and break. We also created "hubs" or inner and outer rings that were meant to keep the axel from siding out of the side plate. We quickly realized when we finished our solidworks mockups that we far exceed the material limit by trying to make as many bracing as possible so we began to cut a lot of triangles into the side plate and reduced the amount of cross bracing. 

Final overview:
While our windlass was stable and easily spun when the water bottle was not tied to it, it required a lot of force to get the water bottle up. Our idea of integrating the axel into the side plate while avoiding the problem of the bending and possible breakage of the main support rod, created too much friction when force was applied, especially since we had hub guards that held tightly on to the axel that exponentially increased the friction.
Material usage: we (shamefully) used almost all of the materials we were limited to
50cm/50cm of Delrin
499cm^2/500cm^2 of Delrin sheets used

Reflections: One of the biggest drawbacks we faced was spending too much time debating our design rather than implementing it. This was especially disadvantageous for this project because we were limited in time to cut out the pieces for the windlass. If I were to redo this project I would try to cut out our pieces as soon as possible and make as many iterations so we could spot problem areas earlier on rather than trying to brainstorm one perfect design. If we were to improve this design we would make a better handle and try to reduce the amount of friction by removing the hub guards.

Notes from other team's presentations