Blog #5: Washing Machine

 What a day!

Nearly as soon as I get to school in the morning, I see an email from Cris Harris (one of our mentors) that we could swing by his house that morning to pick up an old washing machine. Why you may ask? Don't worry, I'll get there. Upon seeing that message, I gathered my partners and hopped in my car. First I had to drive home to get my dad's larger SUV because a washing machine would not fit in my car. Then we began the nearly hour-long drive from my house to Mr. Harris's house in Madison. The entire way on the highway, it was pouring rain. At some points it was coming down so hard I could barely see. That's beside the point though; in the end, we made it. After pulling around to the back of Mr. Harris's house, we quickly went into the basement, carried the washing up the stairs, and were back on our way to Hawken. 


The picture above is from the underside of the washing machine. We needed the machine for the motor and possibly the gearbox. The motor is the small white-ish box near the bottom of the picture and the gearbox is the darker grey box in the middle. With the motor, we are attempting to convert it into a DC generator with some rewiring. We need this type of generator because it is the best for what we are trying to do. The main reason we used a washing machine motor instead of simply buying one of the internet was to be sustainable. The most important part of our project is that we can create sustainable energy, so if we can make the whole process sustainable, that would be much more meaningful in the end.

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