The machine that Archit and I decided to take apart for this first assignment was the sewing machine. When we first brought it back to our work station, I definitely underestimated how extensive the breakdown for this machine would be. We started by unscrewing the bottom base of the machine and removing the face cover on the side. Our initial goal was to just strip all the plastic covers and see what we were dealing with on the inside.
Image 1: First step of removing the face cover exposing the complex inner mechanism of the machine.
Image 2: Removed the base and corresponding screws.
Once we got past most of the plastic we were invited to explore further by unscrewing what seemed to be an endless amount of screw, often at difficult angles that needed some finesse to loosen.
Image 3: Removed all plastic covering, leaving behind only the cast iron frame and inner workings including buttons, gears, and levers
Once we removed every screw we could locate, we ran into a little difficulty with most of the structure still intact. We were guided to use Allen wrenches to loosen hexagonal sockets which then started to break down many of the subcomponents within the metal frame. Another difficult part around this time was the removal of retaining rings which required both Archit and I to force small screwdrivers into tiny sockets and push as hard as we could to remove what seemed to be the smallest piece of all.
Image 4: The meat of our dismantle process where we had to use a variety of screwdrivers, wrenches, and pliers to remove screws, washers, and retaining rings.
Image 5: The meat of our dismantle process where we had to use a variety of screwdrivers, wrenches, and pliers to remove screws, washers, and retaining rings.
After we did this however, the remaining structures began falling apart nicely, leaving behind a bare metal frame.
Image 6: Sewing machine frame laid out including plastic frames, cast iron inner frame, flat bed attachment, motor, and spool with string.
Image 7: Sewing machine frame laid out including plastic frames, cast iron inner frame, flat bed attachment, motor, and spool with string.
After sorting and weight our parts, we disposed of our sewing machine and cleaned our workspace.
Image 8: Cleaned workspace after appropriately disposing of parts.
Reflecting back on the process, the sewing machine was made almost exclusively of parts that could be made of off-the-shelf materials, excluding possibly the plastic outer frame. Thus, I believe that the machine was made to be taken apart and put back together. In fact, this was somewhat confirmed while we were learning how to sew in one of our subsequent classes and the TAs taught us how to troubleshoot and partially take apart some things on the machine in order to make it run properly. Taking all of this into consideration, I believe the designed planned for the machine to be fixed (and we were even told initially to save the parts so that they could be used in the future to help replace parts from other sewing machines in the OEDK). One thing I found interesting was that the metal frame in the middle accounted for nearly 35% of the total weight of the whole machine. After thinking about why it would be so heavy, I believe that this weight allows for the machine to be steady during the sewing process with most of the other material being super lightweight. If the metal frame was not as heavy as it is, then the user would have much less control and the process of sewing would be less precise. One thing I learned about assembly and design was the mechanics of the retaining rings. These rings gave us a lot of trouble and would snap back on if we released any tension while trying to remove them. I was fascinated by how such a small piece was able to effectively hold much of the machine together at vital parts of the structure.
Link to our worksheets:
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X-o5B3bMRdFMa_7tdLCYQ3Lgi9nd2DcX0FzCWoYFzu4/edit?gid=0#gid=0
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fEa1SY1DkY32c5XxyoKPtc6ZXFyAMv3H/edit
