Tuesday’s class was a style of learning I have never participated in before. My teammates, Ben and Clark, and I were given an old Kodak projector to completely disassemble without breaking any components. Stripping something to its component parts was much more informative than I would have thought, and it was also a fun experience (especially looking at old slides of a 60’s era farm vacay).

Our projector was clearly not meant to be taken apart for maintenance, as many parts were held together with finicky little springs or screws that required torque screw drivers. Nevertheless we were able to get the whole thing apart with just these torque screw drivers, some scissors, and a socket wrench. We were surprised to learn that the complex motions of the projector slide advancement were controlled by a small motor and a series of springs attached to stamped sheet metal pieces. The amount of these sheet metal pieces, and the specificity of their design kind of blew my mind. It’s impressive to me that someone was able to visualize all of these parts working together in the projector.

Attached are two photos of the project: one of the innards of the projector and one of my teammates.