The Stainless Steel Container: A Description

The color is brushed metallic silver. It mirrors the light and makes a frosty gray line. Out in the sunlight, it is hard to look at because the shiny metal reflects the sun. There are very fine streaks going horizontally around the cylinder. All the edges are rounded and smoothed. It does not have any sort of seam. It looks as if it is one solid piece of stainless steel. I can wrap both hands around the cylinder with my fingertips touching. The top of the container is open, and the bottom is closed off. There are over 300 holes smaller than my pinky tip. From eye level, I see a rectangular cylinder with rectangles made of dots. The shape reminds me of a big cup. It can hold other objects such as pencils, silverware and other knick knacks. I would like to use it as a pencil holder in my room. It feels like slick glass but grips to my fingers with a bit of traction. The holes feel like a cheese grater. The texture reminds me of my pocket knife. They are both made from stainless steel and have the same brushed finish. On my forearm, the cylinder feels like cold glass, almost like ice. Against my cheek, it feels cold at the beginning, then the metal heats up rapidly until it is the same temperature as my cheek, so it feels neutral. When I smell it, I imagine a surgeon’s rooms with everything made of sterile stainless steel. The smell is sharp and makes my nose tingle. It makes me feel comforted because the smell of metal reminds me of working at StarBot where I do robotics and engineering. The object alone does not have any sound, but if I flick it with my fingernail quickly, it will make a high-pitched ringing resonating sound. When I drop it on a tile floor, it makes a clanging sound and it reminds me of when you pull pots and pans out of a cupboard. 

Writing Workshop: The Super Sandwich

The Super Sandwich

At twelve noon on a sunny Friday, I was in my kitchen. I was very hungry and wanted lunch, so I decided to make a sandwich. I found two pieces of soft wheat bread and put them in the toaster. Ding! They were done. Rapidly, I took them out and put them on the counter. I put shiny olive oil, Swiss cheese slices and salty ham on the crispy bread. But I wanted more, so on went crunchy lettuce and juicy tomato. I fried up some bacon and added three sizzling strips. Hungrily, I wolfed down a big bite. But I felt like it was missing something. So I ran quickly to the cupboard and pulled out a green, squishy avocado and spicy red hot sauce. I added a thick layer of avocado and shook the hot sauce over the whole stack. As I was about to take a second bite from my now pretty large sandwich, I thought to myself, “I am so hungry I could eat way more than this.” So I decided to go all out and put anything I could find from the kitchen on it. I added a cooked hamburger patty, black olives, wavy potato chips, slices of onion, finely diced garlic, thinly sliced pineapple, green apple, red apple, strawberry yogurt, hummus and a fried egg. Now my sandwich was two feet high. I lifted it up, but I could not fit it into my salivating mouth. It started to fall apart, slipped from my hands and fell all over the floor. All the ingredients coated the floor at my feet. I looked at the pile of food and thought it was disgusting. I didn’t want it anymore. My dog came into the kitchen and started to lick it up. As she gobbled up the super sandwich, I was relieved that I did not have to clean it up. I went to the cupboard and got a bowl of cereal. My lunch was delicious.

The 3-D Printer: The Dream Machine

Have you ever wanted a machine that could make almost anything? A machine like this is now becoming easier to own. Desktop 3-D printers are storming the market. A 3-D printer is a machine that can make objects out of plastic, anything from an iphone case with your initials to a fully functional whistle. Essentially, it can make anything you can imagine. 3-D printers have been around for over 30 years but have been primarily industrial and experimental rather than a personal product. Recently, companies have been making 3-D printers that are a lot more affordable. Until recently, they still cost more than $1,500. There are many individuals getting into the 3-D business and trying to design a machine that is both affordable and reliable. A new company has recently emerged with a printer called the Solidoodle that costs $500.

Imagine a machine that is a foot wide, a foot tall and a foot long made of stainless steel. It is like a very precise hot glue gun. It takes plastic filament and heats it up to its melting point, from 210°C - 250°C. A stepper motor, a very precise motor that measures in steps, pushes out the melted plastic filament in a very thin strand (0.3 mm). The strand is approximately the thickness of a strand of human hair. There are different types of plastic you can use. One of the most common ones is ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene). ABS is the same plastic used to make Legos and most toys. You can buy the plastic in 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs.) spools of filament. The current price for a spool is around $45.00. According to the companies, these spools should last you awhile. You can buy different colored spools. Right now you can only make monochrome objects. So if you put red plastic in the 3-D printer, the object will be all red and if you put green, the object will be all green.  

The thin strands of plastic are put on an aluminum plate that is heated so the plastic will stick to it. The 3-D printer then prints layer after layer of your object until your object is finished. How does the robot know what to print? To make something on a 3-D printer, you have to first design it by using 3-D modeling software such as Google SketchUp, Maya or any other modeling software that can save in STL (STereoLithography).  You can also go to a website called Thingiverse.com that has thousands of designs that you can download and print.

I think that in the next 10-15 years, most people who already own a computer and an ink jet printer will also own a 3-D printer. Picture wanting to have something and being able to hold it in a matter of hours. 3-D printers are revolutionizing manufacturing.

A Book Summary: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

The story takes place in a train station in Paris.

Hugo is twelve-year-old  boy who lives inside the train station. Hugo's father, a watch-maker, finds an automaton in a museum, and in his free time, he tries to fix it. An automaton is a complex, gear-driven machine that does a task.Unfortunately, the museum burns down and the father dies. Hugo goes to the burned museum, finds the automaton and tries to fix it with found and stolen materials.

Isabelle is a girl who helps Hugo go on his adventures.

Papa Georges is an older man who works in a toy booth in the train station and is Isabelle's godfather.

  The story ends with Hugo living with Papa Georges and Isabelle. he goes to school and makes his own automaton. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is over 500 pages but more than half of them are very detailed and descriptive pencil drawings.

Summer Blacksmithing: How I made a Forge on Whidbey Island

This summer on Whidbey Island I made a blacksmith forge. It reached over 2000°F. I made the forge by going to the thrift store and buying a pot, a pan and a hairdryer. At the hardware store, I got long nails, a glue called, "J.B. Weld" and a small metal pipe. I got the J.B. Weld glue because it can get to over 500°F. It was the glue which was the most tolerant to heat that I could find. I then went on the beach that is located in our backyard and found some damp drift wood, squishy, cold clay and found a big block of sparkly coal. Then, I made the forge by first drilling holes in the pan. After, I glued the pan on top of the pot with J.B. Weld. I put a hole in the pot and glued the pipe in it. I attached the hairdryer to the pipe with duct tape. 

I took a hammer and broke the coal down into little pieces. 

Then, I put the little pieces of coal in the top of the forge and lit it. I then turned on the hairdryer and the coals got really hot. I was very excited. The first time I fired up the forge I just flattened a piece of steel. The anvil I used was a piece of railroad track that was given to me by a friend. The next day I fired up the forge, I made a knife from a nail which I had found on the beach.

 Here are some pictures and diagram of it.

Titanium

This year I decided to make a 3 lb. Battle Bot. I manufactured it at StarBot, a facility where children can use complex industrial machinery. I first designed it on paper and figured out what kinds of materials I was going to use. I made a wooden prototype. Over the next month or two I finished my first 3 lb robot, which I call Titanium. 
I fought with it at the 2012 STEM TECH Olympiad.

This is my 3 lb. Battle Bot. It's weapon is a red, titanium, spinning blade on the front. It's armor is painted black.

 My brother, Miguel, and I made a logo for the robot.  

Our Logo  

Our logo is an "i" inside of a "T", representing the periodic table symbol for Titanium. XX11 represents the atom

count (22).

Here is the logo sprayed on the robot. 

We also made stencils to lay on top of T-shirts. We sprayed painted them to make our TEAM ADRIAN shirts.

 This is the front of the t-shirt after being spray painted.

This is the back. It says, "TEAM ADRIAN"

 Here is TEAM ADRIAN 
From left to right: Me, my sister Sophia and my brother Miguel. 

I designed, manufactured and drove the robot while they cheered me on.

 We carried the robot and my tools to the Miami Beach Convention Center where the STEM TECH Olympiad 2012 was held.

 Bill Garcia, the creator and owner of Star Bot, helped me build my first robot.

 Inside the convention center there were many booths with different activities.I was in the area with the Battle Bots. They gave me a table where I could work on my robot.

I tested my robot in the battle arena and made sure everything worked well.