Finally, a picture taken in the daytime

Erm...what can I say, it's an elephant.
This was before we had pulleys, so it was really hard to move the trunk.

A sign from God?

God says we need more chips.

Safety inspection

power supply

The power supply works like a charm. Since the water pump needs 12V and the electromagnet needs 5V, we'll have to attach the ground from the power supply to the center post of the switch on the contol panel. Then we'll attach the positive leads to the pump and the electromagnet. We need to mount the power supply somewhere near the back of the elephant, I think, to keep the AC cord out of the way. Then we should mount a water reservoir on the opposite back corner, because water + AC + metal elephant = no more Anthony. We should run the wires through the metal tubing. It's going to be a lot of wire. I can't figure out where to mount the power supply's power switch. It only has a 1 foot cord.
Moving along,
I ripped the power connector off of a 428MB hard drive (don't ask), so we can use that in case we need to disconnect something. Unsoldering is not fun :-(

Here is a (not-really)-close-up of the control panel thus far. Again, cell phone, nighttime, headlights OK?

The elephant so far, in all its glory. I took this picture at night with headlights with a cell phone, so it's not the greatest quality.

water pump

OK, now I've been working on the water pump.  The 12V from the PC power supply works fine.  The pump is really noisy, but maybe that's just because it's 1:20 in the morning and my room is completely silent.  It shoots a pretty powerful stream of water.  The green hose is EXTREMELY tight on the fitting on the pump.  I had to put the end of the hose in hot water for a few minutes, and then it softened up enough, but it was difficult even then.

electromagnet

I'm working on the electromagnet right now.  The black wire that I had turned out to be the same size (22 gauge) as the red stuff already on the magnet.
The thicker core makes a stronger magnet, and it doesn't get as hot.  The +12V from the PC power supply make the wire REALLY hot really quickly, and the magnet isn't that much more powerful than with +5V.  The +5V from the power supply is strong enough, but it gets kinda hot.  I'm not sure if it's too hot, but we should get 20 gauge wire just in case.
Wrapping the wire 2 layers thick makes it hotter, while only slightly increasing the magnet's strength, so I don't think we should do that.

Credits

Thanks to Greg for being a genius (and fixing my HTML and CSS). Apparently, Blogger.com doesn't know how to properly create a template.

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"The Envirover"

This was the project of two years past. It was good, except for the cashew-sized welds.

the volcano man

a.k.a. "Kris"


a.k.a. "Raised Value Container"








most definitely one of the coolest volcanoes ever

"I'm yellow!"

No Anthonys were harmed in the posting of this picture.

welding machine transporter

Picture request

We need pictures of the entire elephant on this blog.  If anyone has any, post them or email them to me.

Monique wanted this:

script recording MUY IMPORTANTE

The script is here.
It's 1.4MB, so you can even download it on dialup JOEL.

ROSEANN: We recorded ourselves reading the script after you left, so you can download it and listen to it and maybe that will help with memorization.

FREE IPODS!!!

Do you want a free iPod?
Go here.

To Do: (a lot)

buy: 10ft black flex pipe for shell frame
make ears out of cardboard and bamboo
attach ears to black flex pipe
cover elephant with sheet and screens.  tent pole is used for rear shell support.
put clamps on ropes on control panel
put something (steel cable?) around base of trunk and attach an eye screw to it
tie rope to end of trunk, run it through an eyescrew in the middle of the trunk, and from there to the control panel. (for curling trunk up for shooting water and looking cool)  this isn't really that important
make elephant's face
give elephant a pair of tusks
make and attach a better electromagnet
make and attach water pump with reservoir
costumes: elliott, brian, joel
finish cardboard floor
memorize script
remove all sharp edges from frame
make curling part of trunk (world only)
add wheels for transportation (world only)

Please add comments if you think of anything else.

late-night control paneling

I finished the control panel about 15 minutes ago.  It is complete with an SPST switch (for the water pump and electromagnet), and 3 holes with smoothed washers around them so the rope doesn't get cut by the jagged metal.
There were a few problems, but they're not important enough to write about here because I fixed them already.

My ears are still ringing

The 7/16 drill bit is really messed up. It took me like 10 minutes to drill through the 1/8 inch flat stuff.

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Ahhh!

I've been bitten by an ant.

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the control panel

Last night we worked on the so-called "control panel."  it's gonna be cool.  It will have a switch mounted on it for the electromagnet and the water pump.  And it will have 3 holes for the ropes to control the vertical movement of the trunk and the curling.  We have the 2 vertical supports for it attached with bolts, but the bolts get in the way of the folding action of the chair, so we might take them off and weld it instead. 
We cut the 2 pieces of rebar, which was a very bad experience.  The first piece cut in about 4 seconds, so I thought I could just hold the second one and not clamp it.  But as it turned out, I couldn't.  It rattled my hand so hard that my fingernails bled.  It hurt for 15 minutes, and it still hurts when I touch it.  But I digress.  
Less than 5 minutes ago, I bought 4 clamps at Wal-Mart.  They were $0.68 each.  Hopefully they're strong enough to hold the ropes when they come through the control panel.

electromagnet research

The best core to use is soft iron. If cast iron or steel is used, it will be magnetized after the current ceases.
Thinner wire is better because you can fit more turns in the same space.

Tip: mount the core in a drill.

You can vary the strength by varying the voltage.

Computer power supplies give +5V and +12V and they won't run out of battery in the middle of the performance.  They are free (trash).  But they have pretty low current.

Maybe use a spool of wire because it's already wrapped.

Professional electromagnets often have thin water coils built in for cooling.  Aluminum cooling fins may work too.

http://www.coolmagnetman.com/magdcem.htm

We need a plasma cutter

Elliott: i wonder if they make cookie-cutter thingies for plasma cutters so you could get them in all different shent shapes, like and elf or a birthday cake. Then you could put it on and be like "bam theres an elf!"

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Wow!!

Brian dunked an apple juice! Anthony was on the phone with his girlfriend for like an hour, so i had to wait until now to post thist this

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Testing the Electromagnet

We need thicker wire.

Monies

Anthony says it's food.

Words of wisdom

It's easier when you have a plan

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! Idea !

We could make the elephant spit or cough up or throw up or sneeze some nasty stuff onto the ground for one of our tasks. This would be different than the shooting water.

Cumulative Review: March 16

Summary:
Wow. So much happened today. As far as actually making a working elephant, we didn't do very much. We had lots of ideas, and lots of problems. We had to talk about the problems for a long time, and we solved most of them, although we had to make some compromises between how good it will be and how much time it will take to make it.

before 7:30 AM: Chris arrives and starts watching The Nightmare Before Christmas.
7:30 AM: Elliott is awoken by dad.
8:00 AM: Elliott and dad think about what to do in case of a drizzle, downpour or other precipitation.
9:30 AM: Brian and Joel and Anthony arrive, right on time. We're still pondering the precip.
10:30 AM: The rain-resistant cage is complete (with a cool electric sawhorse thingamabob)
10:31 AM: The sun comes out and it never rains for the rest of the day.
after 10:31 AM We worked on the elephant.

We got rid of the tire around the turning wheel, and instead, we now have four (4) [IV] footles around it. We talked about pulleys a lot, and how we could use them to make a steering device with pedals. But it's really hard to visualize pulleys. So we ended up doing Joel's idea, the handle around the turning wheel.

We drilled holes for the second joint of allthreads, and we (I) ground off most of the threads.

We cut a short piece of thin PVC lengthwise, so we could squeeze it smaller, and that way we could fit it inside the black trunk pipe. The PVC is to keep it from bending some.

At the very end, we welded on the chair, so that when Rosie asks tomorrow, "So what did y'all guys get done without me?," we can say, "Ta-daa! We made a chair!" The chair came from the Boys and Girls Club, so it's a good thing we went there that one time, you know.

We stopped by Anthony's house on the way back, and he has a miniature junkyard in the back. There's lots of cool stuff, including an old car that Anthony broke a Windw out today.eeee that means itstime for beeds.ad..asa.,sdaiklleaa

Enchilada

Which one's scarier?

Elliott: too much demon hunter

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Elliott: My left knee hurts

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Working hard

Or hardly working?

True value costume

Project status

We're going to the club to help joel's parents move some furniture. And supposedly, some me our stuff is there. We're watch watch

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progress?

Anthony's doing absolutely nothing. Brian is sawzalling something. Rosanne is spraypainting the trunk grayish. Joel is throwing a hackysack and putting almonds on my bed and playing with a multimeter. He's scared of electrocution. I'm disconnecting from the internet.

Day 1 or zero or maybe it's two?

Elliott: It's 4:30 AM and I'm still not in bed. Tomorrow---I mean today, the crew is coming at 9:30. Brian went to bed like an hour ago, so we're both gonna be tired I think.
Here's what we did today:
We figured out how to make the trunk spin. We grinded one of the treads off the spinning tire to make a groove, and thin rope is going to go in that groove and when we pull each end of the rope, it will spin the whole trunk up to 360degrees.
Also, we finished (*holding breath*) the first joint on the trunk. It took a long time to grind off all the threads of the allthreads. That sentence is a bit odd, isn't it? Anyway, I think Rosanne finished the script by herself, and she's been working on the cardboard too. Tomorrow---I mean today we first need to figure out how to make the elephant skin. Then I guess Rosanne and Chris (and Jerry?) can work on that while Brian and Anthony and I (and Joel?) work on making it work.

Well I seriously need to go to bed.