I designed a metal backpack rack with three main components for the student worker desk in the on campus machine shop.

Materials: Aluminum stock, imperial hardware, steel sheet metal

Tools used: Manual knee mill, Waterjet cutter, horizontal band saw, belt sander

I wanted the backpack rack to fit into the cubicle instead of clamping to the top or hanging over both sides via pressfit. To do so, I measured the brackets used to connect the cubicles into corresponding wall seams, and created a CAD model according to very detailed measurements. I cut these out of steel using the waterjet, with additional through-holes such that a long, flat piece of aluminum (the length of the cubicle wall seam-to-seam minus the thickness of each bracket) could be screwed into the brackets. I machined this piece of aluminum so that it was the exact length on the manual mill, and then removed the top cover and used toe clamps to secure it upright and to the side of the mill. This was necessary as the backboard piece was too long to drill directly. The most intensive component to machine was each backpack hook; I cut one block into 3 pieces using the bandsaw, and machined each one separately. Some tooling I used included a large face mill, various end mills, center drill and drill, and radius tool. I hand filed corners into fillets, and threaded holes to attach the hooks to the backboard.

Specific skills learned for this project include creating engineering drawings, design for manufacture (DFM), taking precise measurements with tools like the Vernier caliper and micrometer, doing simple force calculations, creating unconventional mill set-ups for drilling large pieces of stock, and creating safety requirements.

As an extension of this project, I will be using the CNC mill to create 3 more backpack hooks for the machine shop staff to use in their section of the shop office. I have finished cutting and drilling the backboard and Waterjet cutting the cubicle brackets, and created a program using MasterCam; I will be ordering material for the hooks.