Mechanical Engineering - Small Project Suggestions

Yes. Design a coffee pot spout that does not dribble onto the floor when the coffee is hot.

Yes,

Robotic Cable Repairmen that show up immediately upon request for service.

Sonic-ally excited dental floss.

An inexpensive international spelling, grammatical correction and conceptual context machine.

Stop Me!

A cheap and simple tap for public bathrooms,perhaps droven by pedal with a poliamyde hose up to tap.-

A pedal powered wheel chair. Seriously.

That already exist!

The pedals are placed at hands height....

Cool. I was thinking in other terms though: physical therapy for example, or for those who cannot support their body but can pedal with their legs, or a hybrid version that stops muscle atrophy.

Maybe not in your life but in the lives of many others.

Dual reflector solar concentrator on equatorial mount. I have only made models so far and the idea itself is only about 3 months old. So far almost everybody has been too chicken to either comment on it or try it out. (Even trying it in fancy dancy cad software would help).

Also make a solar design t-square and use it to design a panel cooker for the 3rd world.

You can even name the panel cooker after yourself or your wife, husband, partner or relative.

And people will thank you while the sun cooks their dinner in hot countries. (I have made one reflector dish with my solar design T-square and it is much more different from the typical panel cooker than I expected. (Designed using a laser!)

Best of luck

Brian

Looking For A Problem

A 'walking' stick. A square platform with four small wheels, powered by a Li-ion battery with a vertical stick support with handle bars housing the controls. Single speed (Slow walk). The support stick has a steering wheel at the bottom. Only forward movement. Must make a U turn to go back. To help the infirm to get about on level floor in side house. A level sensor at the front will prevent going down steps. bioramani

One project that meets your requirements is to design MEMS. They don't get much smaller than that. On a larger scale, I suggest you design a drive-through rest room.

Design a portable heat recovery system that can capture heat from your car sitting in the garage after a trip. The car will give off heat for hours, and a heat exchanger could be used to preheat your hot water, thus saving money by reducing gas or electric use. Perhaps a mat that fits under the car could contain the circulating fluid for the heat exchanger.

I don't think this is a mechanical engineering but how about a hand held instant translation device. So all you do is set the languages of say English and French and set to send or receive. If you spoke English into the device the listener could hear what you say in French or vice versa. Since there are so many languages, the market would appeal to nearly everyone. I am tired of speaking french by just adding the "Le" to english words like "Le Beer."

When I was going through Marine Engineering school in the Canadian Navy back in the 70's we all were instructed to individually build a working "Sterling Heat Engine".

I still have mine and it still runs. The course taught us physics (thermodynamics) and the practical engineering involved in building the unit.

We had to manually cut & file the main components using, steel, aluminum, copper and cast iron (fitting & metallurgy). Once the main components were graded on their trueness, we then moved onto the machining phase where we applied machining principles like boring, threading, facing and turning a crankshaft.

When everyone had completed their engines we were graded and then we all put $10.00 into a pot and bet to see whose engine was the fastest. Of course this was dependent on how precise the clearances were.

They Sterling Heat Engine have many applications in the world for alternative energy as they can be run by the sun using a parabolic dish and other sources of heat.

You can mount 2 stirling engines on the dual reflector equatorial mount thingy!

Or one engine and one water heater, etc.

Stirling engines are relatively heavy things and they are stationary at the focal points in the equatorial mount.

With nearly every other tracking system, that is not the case because the focus moves all over the place and then how do you attach your stirling to anything to power it?

It would be great if someone had the courage to model it on their cad program.

Then upload it to either the solar cooking wiki (Passive audience there I am afraid) or (better) the appropedia wiki where they sometimes pitch in and develop things further.

Sterling engines have come a long way and are not large devices anymore. I have seen one that is the size of a baseball and rotates @ 10,000 rpm powered by a parabolic dish.

This company commercially markets its whisper DC generator for small yachts and also has a unit that runs on biomass. This is actually a rotary engine. I have met the inventors and seen the engine work. There is virtually no noise and with its waste heat you can heat a yacht. Very Cool!!

http://biomassauthority.com/whispergen-stirling-engine-heat-and-power-generator/

There is great potential for this technology as shown by the manufacturers of the Whisper.

This was masterblaster's post, I did not realize that I was not logged in

Small? Seems to be the size of a dishwasher!

It is a bit hard to communicate with "guest". Do you have an email address that your are willing to part with? I have a project if you have experience with fluid dynamics and/or thermodynamics as relates to turbines. Or better yet you could be an out of work turbine development engineer. I have a project if you have the knowledge I need. And that goes for all of you on CR4. What a Great place, " a rich store of knowledge and humor as well" What could be better than that?? I ask you!!

Most of these sound too large and complex. The OP wanted a small project, purely mechanical. Non of that electrical or thermodynamic voodoo.

Keep it simple... A slinky that goes up the stairs. You invent it and we'll come up with some mass applications for that in our life.

The OP has also failed to return... how typical is that.

Are you doing your thesis in school?

I suggest"

1. Establish an automotive workshop business project. It will grease and gear up your knowledge and your life as well.

2. Establish an HVAC business then it will cool your life.

3. Establish a Fire/Security Alarm system and Fire suppression system business then it will sounds and shower your career and life.

creat a small RC jet air craft working on the same principle as the bigger one does ,it is difficult but realistic trust me