February 21st: Today, I gathered up the materials and started drilling. It wasn’t a laborious task since I only did drilling and attached the tacks in. There were no special skill requirements; I experienced this in our previous bridge-building project.   

However, I encountered one problem that delayed my progress. I realized the nails did not fit into the holes and needed to be enlarged. Therefore, I had to re-drill each hole again to ensure that the nails would fit. This process took up a lot of my class time, so I spent most of the first class on drilling and finding the right fit of the holes. 

February 23rd: Initially, I was going to continue with my plan formulated in the Develop and Plan section. However, I encountered a problem that would significantly affect my final product. As you can see in the image below, the holes I initially drilled pierced through the sticks, resulting in cracks and crevices throughout. This problem would damage the final product because it would make the lift fragile, destroying this device’s purpose.   

There were no alternatives other than re-drilling the holes and replacing the popsicle sticks. I realized the cracks were made because I drilled slanted or if I added too much pressure. Thus, I avoided these problems when re-drilling, but this process also took up much time.   

I could follow my plan in this class and continue with the procedures. After drilling, I interconnected the two sets of sticks by using four thin, cylindrical sticks. Liza recommended that I could use a pencil sharpener to sharpen the ends of the sticks to help attach them better, which was feasible: 

This process required me to be precise about the length of each stick so that the lift was evenly balanced and aligned.   

Additionally, I spent today’s class trying to attach some of the fundamental pieces to a soft, thin wooden plank. Initially, things went out smoothly until I realized a mistake I had made. Instead of just sticking on one side of the stick, I applied hot glue on both, which interfered with the movement of the lift.   

I had to remove the glue from the other side of the block so that the lift is flexible. Similarly, because of my mistake with the bottom attachment, I knew the top of the lift had to be stuck onto using the same method. Therefore, I applied hot glue to the alternating side of the bottom attachment, which created a balance and allowed the lift to be adjustable.  

February 27th: This was my last day to work on the project, and I did rush a little, leading to some things that could have been improved in my final product. I followed my initial plan of attaching the syringes, which I thought would be uncomplicated; However, I attempted many trials, which helped me attain the device’s purpose.   

As you can see, I have identified the problem causing my failures. Mr. Walton gave me some tips and suggested that I hot glue the smaller syringe onto the wooden board to stay in place. I followed the instructions and had success! Below is my final video.  There were other adjustments that I should make, but due to time constraints, they were beyond the bounds of possibility. I realized that the holes I drilled were still unaligned, causing one edge of the lift to be uneven. Consequently, this resulted in a limit on the lift’s objects. Heavier ones placed would probably break the lift due to its imbalance, but I still followed most of my planned procedures, which resulted in this final product.

There were other adjustments that I should make, but due to time constraints, they were beyond the bounds of possibility. I realized that the holes I drilled were still unaligned, causing one edge of the lift to be uneven. Consequently, this resulted in a limit on the lift’s objects. Heavier ones placed would probably break the lift due to its imbalance, but I still followed most of my planned procedures, which resulted in this final product.