02x03 - Green Machines

[bunniefuu]

♪ We've got two days to get this straight

♪ We got a challenge just won't wait

our eyes are on the prize ♪ An engineer

just set the date ♪ We got this client

can't be late oh, no, it's go time

♪ Build it, test, fix it debug now and kick it

♪ Got to get it off the ground yeah

♪ Stick around and you'll see what teamwork's supposed to mean

♪ It's so key Design Squad

Design Squad!♪

Okay, Design Squads.

Today we replaced your couch with a steaming pile of compost.

Why?

That's a good question for today's client.

Let's roll it.

The Food Project is a nonprofit organization that

brings kids together to farm food for hunger relief

organizations.

We do everything here at the Food Project.

We weed, we harvest, we plant.

We do all of this so that we can keep the land and soil healthy

so that we can continue to grow all this local produce.

How does it taste?

Delicious.

Since we don't use any manmade chemicals to fertilize

our land, we use a composter right here.

The way our compost works is we take food scraps, and we take

organic waste from our farm.

We put it all in there for about six months, and we turn it over

every now and then.

The bacteria in the organic waste breaks down the nutrients

in the soil to make really good super soil for our crops.

And if you've ever lifted a -gallon garbage can full of

food waste, you know that it is backbreaking work.

So that's where you come in, Design Squads.

We want you to build us a device that can lift and dump

waste into our composter.

These are the specs.

It must be human powered.

It must carry a -gallon load and distribute waste evenly

around the composter.

And it must be safe to use, and can withstand the weather,

because it'll be outside all year round.

And we'll keep the winning compost lifter and use it here

on our farm.

Good luck, Design Squads.

Wow.

Wow.

Any questions?

Tomas?

We're using wood, right?

Think about it.

you can use any materials you want.

Now, you want it to be able to withstand the weather, so there

are some kinds of wood that can probably do it, but there might

be something better that you could use.

Nick?

What's the diameter of the compost circle?

There's a section of a composter in each of your work

spaces, so you can get a feel for how big it is.

To give you a rough idea, this is gallons of compost right

here.

Anything else?

Start brainstorming.

No, no.

Let him finish.

Let him finish.

You haven't heard my idea yet.

Suppose we had a bear.

Bears are at least this tall.

So it would be nothing to lift the barrel up.

Because he'll work for food.

I love it.

I say we go for it.

What if we had pulley systems on either side?

You pull the thing up, you pull the thing up, and then when it

gets to the top, these things are going to act as a pivot

point.

And then all of a sudden it's like this, and all the compost

is like that.

Okay, I think there's a better way to do this.

This is a very interesting way to do it.

What's wrong with this?

Like, why don't you agree with this?

I think there's a better way to do it.

All right, guys.

So let's get this show on the road.

If we had a box, and then a giant lever that lifted a

platform up, so you just push down on the lever, and it

flips...

And there's a top on this whole box mechanism that would

direct the compost in when it flips.

Well, I'm totally in favor of a giant lever.

A fun lever.

Yar!

We should focus.

So, like, you can have a parrot...

No.

All right, I'm stopping this now.

How's the progress?

This is what we might do.

So this is sort of a composite idea of what we've

come up with.

Do you agree?

Yes, of course I agree.

Except for Jason.

Let's do a mockup.

Okay.

All right, here's... pretend this is a circle and this is the

composter.

And we've got bucket... and we've got a bucketful of

compost.

So pulley, this way.

I'm pulling like this.

Pull it up.

Okay.

And then when it gets the desired height...

Yes?

...you tie them off on either side.

Tie them off.

And then there's a third rope that you can clip onto the

bucket itself.

Clipped.

Let's talk through this.

Let's talk through this, you guys.

This sounds really freaking complicated...

Yeah.

...I tell you right now.

It's not.

It's just really hard to draw.

Well, let's think about what we're trying to do.

So I put the compost in the bucket, put the bucket in the

framework, start pulling the strings, tie off the string,

clip on another rope and flip it up...

You don't have to tie off the string.

You can hold it with your hands and let your other friend

pull...

You guys still need more...

what I'm saying here is that you guys shouldn't have to be...

Could we finish explaining, and then you can judge it?

No.

No, you can't.

Okay.

You can do better than this.

I'm not trying to be hard on you guys, but it's got to be simple.

And one more thing that can really help you out when you're

trying to visualize a complicated concept-- make a

sketch model.

It's just a really simple model.

You're using cardboard and styrofoam and hot glue, so that

you can work through the usage cycle, kind of start visualizing

how things go together.

What if we just built a ramp, they just walked up?

Why not?

A ramp seems so cheap.

So?

if it gets it done... is it not simple?

Is it not... I mean, what's wrong with it?

It's this huge massive ramp that probably won't fit in the

space they have.

Then you have to push it around.

And the ramp has to come up...

I think at that point I'd rather just lift it over.

We can scrap the ramp idea, but what else do we have?

All we need is something that breaks it up and pushes it over.

But we don't know anything.

We have nothing.

We have a degree angle, and we put the compost in here.

And then there's some sort of mechanism we can use to just

bring it up and flip, so it's just like a rotation.

What if you just have something, and it's like a piece

of wood here, and there's hooks on it to attach to the handles?

You just put your bucket here, and then you pull a lever that

will cause this piece of wood with the bucket on top of it to

flip up like that?

We need to do a sketch model.

I wanted to jump ahead and build, because we are out of

time, and how are you going to make it work when it's little,

you know?

It's got to be big.

It's just like the sketching.

It's a waste of time.

So Deysi and I are going to do this lever part of it, and

then you guys... what are you guys going to do?

Make the framework box out of it.

Okay.

I feel much better now.

We're going to start doing stuff.

Is this including the handle?

This is the handle.

Okay.

Okay.

Are you going to reach all the way down there?

I thought you needed two handles for the top, like the

wheelbarrow thing.

Then you reach under and do the one thing.

Yeah.

Whatever.

You can do either.

You've, like, lost so much of your energy.

What happened?

I personally am willing to go with whatever idea the group

finds best, and I don't really care what idea that is.

We can either flip a coin, or you can decide.

I don't care.

Okay, let's flip a coin.

Okay.

Wait, no.

You've got to do it all over again.

That didn't count.

Heads is two handles on bottom.

And tails is one handle.

Wait, wait, wait.

We don't even need to do this.

We have to choose the best idea.

You choose.

We all decide to put our faith in you.

It's like communism.

We have more than two choices.

We can't even decide how to flip a coin.

One choice is one handle all the way.

Second choice is two top handles, one handle on bottom.

Sure.

Okay.

Heads one handle all the way, tails...

No, you said heads was two handles and tails was one.

Yes.

Can you just call me when it's over?

Okay, ready?

And...

It is tails.

That's tails?

Tails.

Or that's heads?

The other side is a head, so this is tails.

But that has a head, too.

One!

We're doing one.

Leah, you can come out now.

This is, like, a resting spot.

Yes, a seat for the trash can.

If we make it strong enough, we could ride the seat up.

Going to the compost.

Forget about the trash can, guys.

Let's just make something fun for us.

I do believe that the joking around is holding the team up.

I think that the team could do a better job at just focusing and

getting it done.

Well, what we have now is one person job, right?

I don't know.

Well, the springs, again you need some way to lock it down

here.

I think you could easily do that with just, like, a tie.

But what we have now is a one person job, right?

Yeah.

So if we do it the way...

I say we should try it.

Yeah, because if you have the spring between...

But that would be one long spring.

All the springs we have over there are real short.

I don't really know what I'm contributing personally.

Like, a lot of my ideas get shot down.

I'm trying to speak out more, but sometimes I just want to

just be like, "You know, I'm tired of talking.

Like, whatever.

Go ahead and do it."

Working with Nick, Kim, or I is great, but if you put the

three of us together we just have way too similar sense of

humor, and we can sort of go off track in our own little world.

Trejonda had some great ideas, but we're not as apt to listen

to her.

She probably felt a little alienated.

What if we just do small models of each of the ideas that

we have now, and see which one we think works best?

Why not...

You're trying to get it so that as you push down on this

you have a platform that just raises straight?

Yeah.

Well, then, you just have...

Why not have the straight be on this side instead of it being

here?

Because when you have it here then you have to worry about the

whole making it turn into the thing.

You have it on this side, and have it at an angle, it could

automatically start turning.

We're trying to just have a fixed piece go right up and down

so they can slide up with it, and they can't go left and

right.

Whatever.

Y'all do what y'all want.

I'm not going to keep on giving suggestions if nobody's going to

say anything about it.

What was your suggestion?

Don't really matter, does it?

If it's a good one it might help us.

Do you want to explain it?

I've explained it.

Honestly, I've said the same thing three different times, and

nobody said anything.

Just talked over it and went on with the story.

So, I mean...

What is it?

It might be good.

I know it might be good.

That's why I said it so many times.

All right, then why not just say it again?

Because I'm tired of saying it again.

You're not going to give the idea anymore?

No.

Basically it's going to go like this.

And we're going to put the bucket in between these two

triangles.

And that way it'll have a cradle to hold it in while you're

lifting it up.

We were thinking we'd have a permanent chute attached to this

so that when it's tipped it just goes down into the chute.

Nice job.

Are you ready for your compost bath, Deysi?

There you go.

We're done with our sketch model, and so tomorrow we just

have to build it with the real materials.

Basically Trejonda's idea is that we have the two supports

back here, and both of them will have hooks so we can actually

physically hook onto the compost cage.

And so when that lifts it'll cause the piece that the

barrel's resting on to actually tilt in.

And that will push the barrel up on this slide.

Then of course we throw on a few pail stops to make sure it

doesn't actually fall in.

This is pretty much what we're going to have to build, quickly.

I think PVC is definitely the way to go with this, because

it's quick and it's durable.

All right.

There's hooks that will hook here and here.

Ladies and gentlemen, put your tools down.

That is it for day one.

Day two, guys.

I don't know if that's too much of an angle, or if it's the

perfect angle.

That's barely enough of an angle for it to start to dump.

I'm just, like, kind of worried about the height on it.

The clients who were in the pre roll didn't look that tall.

If we cut it this much...

Want to measure it using the good old accurate finger

measurements?

Six inches.

Does that look okay?

Are we ready to get the dimensions off of this?

All right.

This is what I've come up with.

We can figure out the dimensions and everything.

This is the base of the pail right here.

This is the sheet metal chute.

I'll cut out the main one, which is, what, ?

Jason measured the piece of metal, and we're going to cut it

with a horizontal bandsaw.

This is...

No, I need to write more stuff on it.

What?

I was ready.

It's okay.

Okay, let's...

I was all ready to help cut, and then all of a sudden the

measurements are not done.

They need to stop talking and start doing.

That's a rough cut, but we'll sand it so it'll be nice and

smooth.

This piece is basically this piece right here.

And this is part of the hinge.

Did you have a design for the hinge?

Yeah.

We can weld on these edge pieces, and then this piece is

going to be the main bracket that fits over... it's almost

like a hook.

What Jason has in mind is a torsion spring hinge.

Here's how it works.

A bracket clips onto the lip of the composter.

A steel rod joins the compost lifter to the bracket, creating

a hinge.

Since their lifter will be heavy, Green Team will use

torsion springs, like the springs in a mousetrap.

They provide a twisting effort called torque to help lift the

load.

But this hinge is like a mousetrap on steroids.

So a pin will safely lock the hinge down when it's not in use.

The springs are going to help lift the weight so it's not as

heavy to lift.

These are the two back pieces for our frame we're cutting

right now.

Perfect.

It's this top piece right here.

I think we should weld this right there just to make it

stronger.

All right, our first piece is done.

It was supposed to be going like this, right?

But now we're raising the issue of this being a point and poking

people.

So we have decided to just put one of these pieces of metal

just across.

It looks great.

Dewey, I think, is going to weld the frame together.

And then we're going to lay a sheet on top of it that's going

to keep all the leaves and compost and debris on a straight

path, like a slide.

We need a bigger piece.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's not level at all.

Why?

Why must everything be unlevel and crooked?

What Dewey should be asking himself is why is he using a

level in the first place?

It won't help him, since the table itself isn't level.

Dewey needs to make sure that the sheet metal is a true

rectangle.

So he could check that the sides are parallel and that the

diagonals are the same length so the corners are square.

Or he could simply check each corner with a framing square.

Hey, guys, we're done.

We're done.

Oh, wow.

This is good.

And they fit on the rim?

We haven't tried it yet, but we're going to try it right now.

Come on.

So guys, if you try this thing there, you see, they won't

go off like this.

Now, look.

Check this out.

One second.

Put it in.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

That's cool.

There we go.

Right.

Just like that.

Do you want to see what it looks like with the springs on

it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We've just cut two pieces that are actually going to be

welded onto our hooks and then welded onto our frame.

We were able to get some hooks that just keep... no

matter where we put it, it'll hook on perfectly, and it'll

always be able to flip over, so we'll be able to evenly

distribute the compost.

This is it, the final assembly.

Looks like it works.

This is so heavy.

That's what I like to see.

You guys have made some progress.

Nice.

Safety-wise, like, here is kind of where I'm worried about.

Is this a pinch point that's risky?

Perhaps.

It's something to think about, because it's always risky

with big moving linkages like this.

There's a lot of places to get a hand caught.

Anyway, let's see how it works.

That's good.

What else do you have left to do?

We probably need to set up a stop up here, because I was just

holding it so it wouldn't fall off.

Tomas, can you come help me with the springs?

Wait.

No.

Looks good.

All right, and then do the full motion.

Have Deysi do it and see if it's too heavy.

Do the full motion.

It is heavy.

It is?

Yeah.

We need more than two springs, definitely.

Let's use the bending machine.

One, two, three.

Getting there.

Okay, that's enough.

That's a nice degree angle.

Beautiful.

We finished the chute.

Oh, that looks...

Now I need to tack weld this.

Deysi is just putting on the flaps of metal that are going to

stop the trash can from falling forward into the composter.

Hey, we're about to test.

Let's see it.

Ready?

So far so good.

Oh, nice.

Nice.

Nice job, guys.

Congratulations.

That worked awesome.

I'm really impressed.

Nice.

Good job, good job, good job.

You guys have springs on it to make the load easier to lift.

So what else are you going to do?

We're going to add more springs, maybe two or three more

right here, so that'll make it easier for us to lift it.

Yeah, it's still a little bit heavy up here at the top, isn't

it?

Yeah.

One last test.

Well, congratulations on a nice design, you guys.

Good luck in the judging.

All right.

Design Squads, meet your clients.

Hi.

Hello.

Purple Team, you're up.

Ready to go?

So what happens is you put the barrel in this basket right

here, and when you pull this whole contraption up this

platform the basket's sitting on actually leans forward pushing

the basket down this slide, so the sliding puts the weight more

towards your pivot points, so you're actually lifting less,

and it's going straight into your compost cage.

Kyra, Marianna, you want to give it a try?

There you are.

Let's do it.

This is really heavy.

Is it heavy?

Yeah, I need help.

All right, I'll give you a hand.

Okay.

Nothing's coming out.

We're too short.

Uh-oh.

I'll give you guys a hand.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

So Green Team, you guys ready for yours?

Yeah.

Drop it.

Perfect.

We have, first of all, the springs up in the back.

We have six springs to help you lift it up when you have your

bucket in here.

And we have this handle that helps you in case you're short.

And then bring it back down.

Nice.

So you guys want to try it out?

Yeah, let's give it a shot.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's good.

Nice job, Green Team.

Let's go huddle up and talk about who's going to win.

So, overall impressions, pretty good?

Of course.

Yeah, definitely.

I like them both.

As a vertically challenged person I had a little bit of

trouble, like, with Purple Team's.

I think our working pattern was procrastination, and then,

like, dash to the end, right?

I think we just spent too long planning.

I think this was, like, a very difficult challenge

compared to the other two that we faced.

Oh, yeah, by far.

Green Team, it was lighter and it was easier to walk your

hands down the little slope.

I don't think, light, weight- wise we have any advantage.

I don't think so.

Oh, yes, we do, because this is a one-man operation.

All right, Design Squads, we have a decision.

The winner of the compost lifter challenge is...

The Green Team.

Yeah!

Nice job, guys.

Congratulations to both teams.

You did excellent work.

It was a really great feeling to know that this is actually

for a good cause.

It's not for personal self gain.

It's actually something that helps everyone in the community.

I think it's really good that they have youth from all over

working towards a common goal, and that common goal is feeding

people, and also doing it organically, locally,

sustainably.

That's wonderful that we're doing something to benefit them,

because they're giving so much back already.

Green Team's win keeps Leah and Tomas locked in the lead for

the third straight week.

Hey, have you checked our Web site?

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

You can build projects on your own or with your friends, and

you can win cool stuff.

Oh, check it out. .

Coming up...

We get to build bikes!

It's all downhill from here, next time on Design Squad.