Work to Automate the Work

March 9, 2022 Hosted by Parker Dillmann, Stephen Kraig

On this episode, Parker discusses his current adventure in testing and qualifying ratcheting wrenches and Stephen finally learns the magic of python!

MacroFab Updates

  • KiCad 6 support!
  • PI DAY Contest
    • March 14th (3/14)
    • Stop by the MacroFab website to take a pop quiz for a chance to win some free pizza

Testing Ratchet Wrenches

  • Wrench qualifications
    • Ratcheting Wrench
    • Non-Reversible
    • Zero-degree offset
    • ½” hex 
    • 12 or 6 point
  • Have collected 20 ratchet wrenches so far
  • Why? Broke one and wanted to try out all the different styles and brands before buying a set
  • What are we testing?
    • Thickness of the wrench
    • How does it feel?
    • Max torque to either failure or cam out
    • Any other tests?
      • Thickness to torque rating
      • How much mechanism play
      • Measure ratchet dimension 
  • How?
    • Quick tests show I need more than 100ftlbs but less than 250ftlbs of bolt torque
    • Load cells to measure the clamping force between 2 plates
    • Need a “screw” drive to handle the force
    • A normal ½” bolt is usually 5/16-18” which handles ~30ftlbs before pulling the threads
    • Two Paths
      • Take a ¾” bolt and machine the head into a hex
      • Take a ½” allen socket with a ¾” square drive and attach that to a bolt

Automate the Boring Stuff

  • Spending 20 hours to save 1 – the engineers life
  • Making API calls with the requests library
  • Requests: HTTP for Humans
  • Openpyxl for creating excel
  • Commenting code
  • Automate the Boring Stuff

Hosts: Parker Dillmann, Stephen Kraig

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro!