2/25 - 2/27

This week, Kim, Jaspreet, and I finished building the word clock frame. It wasn't a very long week, because we didn't have school Monday or Tuesday because of the snowstorm. On Wednesday, we were trying to add the backplate to the frame. The backplate is what is going to hopefully help hang up the word clock, wherever they decide to put it. Our idea was to drill the brackets onto the backplate first, and then drill the other side of the brackets into the frame afterwards. We started having some issues because the original wood screws that we had were not able to hold the backplate and the brackets together. They were too short and the thickness wasn't right so they kind of just fell out. We talked to Mr. L about it and he suggested we go to the carpentry teacher with our problem to see if they could give us some better-fitting wood screws. We went two different times. The second time we went, they were able to help us and give us wood screws that held the backplate and frame together well.

This is a pic of the first wood screw option that carpentry gave us. As you can see, it's too long and wood screws typically are not supposed to come all the way through. Additionally, it wasn't thick enough and also just fell right out.

This is the backplate fully attached to the frame.

On Wednesday, I also sent Mr. L the files for our brackets because we needed four more brackets for extra support around the inside of the frame and he said he would print them for us. When we came in, two of the brackets were already printed. We screwed those into the frame and waited for the other two brackets to be finished printing. When we came back from lunch, the other two brackets had finished printing. We screwed those into the frame, which meant we were done building the frame completely. We also had enough time to transfer the LEDs onto the finished frame and label where each letter will go. We just didn't have enough time to screw the LEDs to the board. Now, all we have left to do is attach the letter blocks and test out the code with the new frame. After that, we'll be done with the word clock.