Summary
The overall goal of my project was to create a brace that stiffened when the person clenched their hand. This idea stayed the same, however, in the final design there were a few changes that were made. One of these changes was the change from a dual pulley system to a lever. This allowed for a more durable brace in the long run. There was also an addition of a clothes underlayer, protecting the wrist, and a change to the overall shape and size of the brace pieces.Â
At the expo, I did accomplish the goal of the brace pieces being able to be stiffening. However, in this final design, I did not get the lever to work quite as wanted.
Challenges
In my design, there were three main challenges. The first of which was the creation of the pieces. In this, I was basing the design off of a door hinge but was having issues with the pieces bending too far or not bending at all. Through much trial and error, I changed the amount the brace was able to move and ultimately ended up moving 110 degrees being the best for space.
The second challenge was the printing of these pieces. While printing the pieces there were many issues with the 3d prints spiderwebbing, resulting in the pieces being unable to be tested. To solve this I had to try to adjust the size to be small enough for the brace, but not too small for the 3d printer. I also messed with various settings in the 3d printers, making the printing easier for the printer to handle.
The final challenge that I had was the actual creation of the pieces. When starting this project I had very little knowledge of how to 3d print anything and had to learn the software. This made the process of creating the initial pieces take longer that expected and made the pieces not look quite as nice as they could have if I was more experience.
Rewarding
When creating this project there were a few rewarding things I learned. The first and probably most important valuable thing I learned was about proper punching and how the wrist is affected. While boxing I want to make sure I can limit the number of injuries I get to the highest degree but was not quite sure before how to properly do this. While I may not be using the brace that I created to do this, I have been able to find various things I can do that will help prevent injuries similar to the wrist ones I was trying to prevent.
The second valuable thing I learned was 3d printing. I have always wanted to be able to create things and being able to 3d print just opens a different realm of things that I can create. This is an expensive hobby, but I found it fun and do want to learn more about it.
The third most rewarding thing I learned was how many people are experiencing wrist issues while boxing. In some classes, I have taken I see people who are either shaking their hands or just punching incorrectly, and this is something that should be avoided. In my project, I worked on avoiding these two different cases but never noticed just how many people it affected. It also has encouraged me to tell someone if I see them doing something very wrong in their punching where they might hurt themself.
Connecting to Future
I have now completed 4 years of the Anoka High School STEAM program and have gotten many experiences I will never forget. In this program, I was able to learn how to always wonder how I can make my projects better and to understand that what I do is never going to be perfect. I hope to be able to bring this mindset to always improve my future career and everything else I do.
I also learned that while it may not seem like something I would want to do try and it might become something I enjoy. This program made me step outside of my comfort zone, but many of the things I did I enjoyed doing. So, I hope to bring this as well with me in the future.Â
I also learned that there is no one correct way to do something. I have already seen this help me in the tutoring job that I have, but I will be using this more as I move forward into the future. I hope to bring this forwards and try to understand how something works, to be able to do it in the best way possible, and just understand that someone doing something different isn't wrong it is just different.