problems
... and on while the cylinders retain the pressure holding the legs in place. Each of the project members are actually fairly skilled in mechanics work which made this seem like less of work and more like play. The faults of the project were recognized when we first got hydraulic cylinder fluid on the table, which denoted a messy project. We knew that we could handle having a messy project, but hydraulic fluid is not something other people want to be dripping out onto their floor. This problem can be contained through drip cups and padding, but that just meant extra cost to the project, which will be explained later. The next issue that we had with the hydraulic system is the added weight that was added to the table. A hydraulic pump for our project was going to be around 30 lbs. along with the cylinders on each leg meant an extra weight package of at least 50 lbs. The particular pump that we got a hold of was only 20 lbs. but that was enough to discourage us. Again, this project is a prototype for us, but the real product is of more importance to the public. Our current system would have to be installed by body-lifters in order to get it into place. The next problem was of the pressure that the pump was to put out. The only pumps that we could find for new or used purchase were of heavy machinery operation, and were quite expensive. We searched around for a low-duty pump that we could use but there seemed to not be any available on the market. We attempted to use an automobile braking system pump, which was messy, but smaller than normal. The functionality of the master brake cylinder pump (as it is called on automobiles) is not suited for the operation that we had intended. The pump would not hold the pressure on the cylinders as we had hoped, therefore allowing the table to slide back down into an unleveled state. This was o...