12-9-14
Mr. Lieb
Speaker Box Finale
The process of designing and printing out a speaker box was strewn with challenges. The first challenge came in the design process. SketchUp is a difficult software to use, as it is very simple. It is not very simple, however to get the exact result that you want. SketchUp, in my opinion is not very easy to use, and having to figure it out through trial and error was a challenge as well. Another challenge was time. While we were given a very generous amount of time to complete the project, there are 52 kids in the class, and finding time to print was not as easy as it may seem. Certain students, who tend to spend more time in the MSI Lab, seemingly were the priority of Mr. Piper's time. Not to say that that is good or bad, but it made time a bigger hurdle to get over. Another issue relating to time was sports. Playing a winter sport makes the afternoon time slot unavailable, a time of day when many teachers are available. Because of the lack of time, I only was able to print one prototype, which ended up not fitting together, and I was not able to try again, like many other students were able to.
My design was very basic, something that I could have adjusted if I had a chance to print another box. I had a 3x3 inch cube with one joint on each side of every square. On the top of the box, I cut out a hole where the speaker would be placed.
The only way to get the finished product to work would be to glue the joints together, as the female joints are slightly larger than the male joints. Due to this, my box was not very successful. If I were to glue the sides together, I would likely get a somewhat louder sound, due to the additional vibrations, but not as successful as if I had gotten the box to work by itself.
If we were assigned this project again and I had to re-do it, I would be more assertive with the teachers and ensure that I would have enough time to print out a first copy of my box and then make adjustments as I saw fit. It would have been nice to have the luxury of time, which I would have had if I had gone out of my way to get the first prototype done, which ended up being my unsuccessful final result. Although many teachers were busy with other grades, classes, projects, tests, and quizzes, it was ultimately my responsibility to get my work done, which I failed to do. Also I would come up with a more original idea than the idea that was presented to us by the Bose companies representatives that came and spoke with us, and I would have budgeted my time more wisely. I learned a lot from this project and ultimately it was a productive educational experience.
