ENTRY
19

October 28, 2026

TPU Printing, Finger Test & New Ramp Fit Check
Duration 2 hours (2–4 PM) Attendees Josh, Torin, Sarah Coach Assistant coach Joy Wyatt

Meeting Summary

Our TPU arrived, and we spent over an hour figuring out how to print with it. We test printed the new intake fingers and hub, and found the hub is too big. Torin kept rebuilding the chassis with a new mounting system, and we tested Josh's first version of the new ramp, which needs a redesign. Sarah also made a rough first draft of our engineering portfolio.

Printing With TPU

  • The TPU arrived before this meeting, and Sarah loaded it into the printer's AMS (automatic filament system). Then we found out TPU isn't supposed to go through the AMS.
  • Josh and Sarah spent more than an hour getting it to print, changing multiple settings in Bambu Studio and on the printer, and disconnecting and reconnecting tubes
  • We were really worried we would break the printer, but we didn't!
  • We researched a lot with Claude on how to do things on the printer
  • What we learned about TPU: it has to be printed on the right extruder only, it has to feed from an external holder, and it must stay dry

Intake Finger Test Print

  • Test printed a finger set, stopping about a quarter of the way through because we just wanted to see if it would fit
  • The hub is too big and would block the big nectar balls
  • The hub needs to be shorter and the fingers need to be longer, so Sarah will redesign both
A partial TPU print of eight intake fingers around a center ring
The partial TPU finger test print
The TPU fingers fitted onto the blue PLA hub
Test fitting the fingers on the hub

Chassis Rebuild

  • Torin kept rebuilding the chassis, making it narrower
  • He is building a new mounting system: the walls mount above the wheels, and the intake mounts to the walls
The rebuilt chassis with the outer frame, wiring, gray ramp, and rubber band intake
The rebuilt chassis in progress
The chassis with its new upper frame and the intake mounted at the front
The new frame with the intake mounted

New Ramp Test

  • Tested Josh's first version of the new ramp design
  • The ramp hit the motors, the intake, and the chassis frame, so we cut it to check the fit
  • It still needs a redesign
  • We decided Josh will make the guide for the shooter V-shaped. At this meeting we decided he doesn't need the rails, just the V-shape.
A black 3D-printed T-shaped piece that attaches the ramp to the walls
A piece to attach the ramp to the walls
A yellow 3D-printed part of the guide for the shooter, on a table
Part of the guide for the shooter
The yellow ramp test fitted on the robot behind the intake
Test fitting the ramp on the robot
Close-up of the yellow ramp with a section cut away to clear the motors
The ramp cut to check the fit

Portfolio & Checklist

  • Sarah made a rough first draft of our engineering portfolio with Claude
  • Torin made our checklist

Homework / Action Items

  • Everyone: look through the first draft of the engineering portfolio
  • Josh: redesign the ramp, make the V-shaped guide for the shooter, and send the files to Sarah; print the hubs; go to Video Games Plus
  • Sarah: redesign the hub (shorter) and the fingers (longer), send Josh the hub file, and keep printing the TPU fingers
  • Torin: bring the checklist to class, and be the main editor of the engineering portfolio

This notebook was created with the assistance of Claude AI and Handy dictation software.