This gyroscope was manufactured as part of UC Davis's manufacturing class, EME 50. The class provides students with hands-on machine shop experience to help engineers to understand mechanical intricacies and better design components for manufacturability. I was first introduced to this project in a prerequisite class, Engineering and Computer design, where I created a CAD model and working drawings of the parts which familiarized me with the project.

Manufacturing:

The manufacturing of the gyroscope was done in the UC Davis Engineering Student Design Center (ESDC). I read working drawings of each part, which used ANSI standard notation, to obtain the dimensions before manufacturing. To make the components, I learned to operate many shop machines such as the lathe, mill, and drill press. To fabricate the parts safely and efficiently, I utilized many speed charts to determine the operating speed of each machine based on the material, fixture, technique, and tooltip. Manufacturing each part to tolerances as tight as ±0.005 inches was critical for the finished gyroscope to perform well.

After the project, I later worked for the ESDC where one of my tasks as a shop tech was to facilitate students working on the gyroscope project. I programmed and ran a G-code file for the mill to automate the frame slot cutting

Spin-Off Competition:

At the end of the quarter, each student's gyroscope was spun in a competition to gauge the quality of work done. The times for each student from every section in the class were compared to each other. The requirement to pass the class is 2 minutes while the average for most gyroscopes made is roughly 4 minutes. My gyroscope finished in first place for my class of 100+ students with a spin time of over 7 minutes.