Making Mistakes in SF, Underground, Week 3, Day 4
Here in San Francisco, we had lots of opportunities today to learn from mistakes and failures today, in order to improve the safety, functionality and aesthetic appeal of our projects. From small mistakes...
Calvin broke a drill bit off into a piece of wood, so he learned how to use the vise grips to remove the remaining metal shard so that it wouldn't stick out and scratch someone. Thank you for following through Calvin!
To bigger ones...
Ella and Ved on the boring machine crew realized that they didn't put together one corner of their frame together correctly when the stud then needed to install that the drill bit will install to didn't fit!
We make lots of mistakes along the way as we work on these large scale projects. And, many times, we simply confront assumptions we held that don't turn out to hold true when building with 8' long pieces of wood! I noticed all the groups had realizations like these today, and it was a great moment to step back take stock of our projects and then keep making progress.
As the tunnel team started to shift many of its enormous tunnel sections into place, they realized that their initial plan for connecting the sections with mini wooden braces might not work perfectly.
Because the sections curve through our space, the braces might not sit perfectly flat on the archways, which means that there will be a gap between the brace and the arch with some exposed screw.
Over on the boring machine, the crew noticed that the frame they built for the boring machine operator to stand in and for the boring bit to mount to turned out pretty wobbly. So, they took a minute to sit down and talk about properties of different shapes. They noticed that with 4 pieces of wood touching end to end they could make many different quadrilaterals. But, with 3 pieces of wood, they could only make 1 unique triangle!
So, they came up with a few different ways to add triangles to their cube.
Anika and Ved take their design from the whiteboard into reality!
Matteo worked hard all day to prototype a way to install wheels onto the train cars. His plan is to construct a channel shaped track to keep the wheels in line.
Meanwhile, Carter, Graham and Preston added a 2x3 frame underneath the plywood seat of their bench to better support the sitter. "We heard a creak when we tested it, so we added more supports." Good call!
Making mistakes is the best everybody! But don't take my word for it, it's neuroscience--really! When you realize that you made a mistake, your brain creates a new, previously non-existent connection. And wowee, have these tinkerers make loads of new connections this week!