ENT 4410 PLATFORM LAB

For one of the labs, we came in to put different platforms together. For one of them, we used triscuits, which are small but dense/more durable, and the other was the open frame platforms. For the first one, we had to first find a starting place for us to put the beams down so we could put the triscuits on top of them. We used a seam on the floor to help us chalk line the first line, to which we then placed the 3 beams equal distance apart. to make the beams parallel with one another, Prof. McCullough reminded us of the 3-4-5 triangle, which helped us line up the beams. I also remember using the top of the first beam and measuring out from there to get both ends of the beams parallel to each other. I remember during the process of drilling in the nails, it was pretty hard for me to get the nail through the beam even though I tried for a while, and with that, I ended up getting burned on one of my fingers and let the others do the drilling. Once we got the beams down, we had to put the triscuits on top, and use longer nails since the triscuit is much more thick than the the beam to the plywood floor. Before we put in the next platform, we used some thin pieces of wood to space out the triscuits so that we could avoid them rubbing on each other. Once we were done with that, we moved on to open frame platforms, which were much easier to put together since all we had to do was put the legs on with nuts and bolts, as well as connect each platform with nuts and bolts, since there were already premade holes for us to use. We then talked about what were some ways to connect platforms together, to which I brought up coffin locks, but then when we talked about how many we probably would end up needing and all the extra stuff you have to do when you use coffin locks, I decided that it wasn’t a good idea to use for the group projects that we did where I originally had the idea of using coffin locks to connect the platforms, but failed to realize the extra stuff that needed to be done if I decided to use coffin locks. We then also discussed how hard it would be to connect multiple platforms that are in the middle, to which Prof. McCullough told us a good way to connect them in the middle was to use smaller platforms that have easy to open lids in the middle, which I decided to do in my updated project.