Week 10

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the late post but I wanted to finish the model before posting.








(Yellow tubes are 1.25 inch diameter and .065 inch wall thickness)
(Red tubes are 1 inch diameter and .03 inch wall thickness)
(The checkered circle in the center is the models center of mass as determined by the program)

     It took long time but the model is finally done. I really enjoyed the process especially towards the end when I finally figured out all the tools I needed to use. Once the 3D sketch was finished, adding the body pipes was fairly simple. I did have to custom make the above tube dimensions but once I figured out how to create the new parameters for the tubes, the second set of dimensions was very straight forward. The only hard parts afterwards were formatting end pieces to connect correctly and trimming excess material at intersections like they would be on the real chassis. I also tested out the model's center of mass and check in with one of the  ASU team members to see if it was correct, which it was. This is vital to the chassis because if the center of mass is off on the actual car, the chance of the car rolling greatly increases if the car jumps off any dirt ramps the courses might have.

Overall I found this project extremely interesting and rewarding. I really enjoyed working down at ASU, especially the times when I got to learn how to use new tools like the lathe, milling machine, welders, etc. However, working on the model in Solidworks was definitely the superior part of my project and learning the program by myself, I feel will be more useful for my future use.

Thank you all for following along over these past ten weeks!

Week 9

Hi everyone!

This week was a short one. I hit 150 hours this week and only went into the labs on Thursday. When I went in almost no one was there and I mostly worked on my chassis design in the labs and for the rest of the week. I have gone through a lot of drafts and dead ends with the program, but I think the current model will be the last one and it should be completely sketched by next week. From there I will convert the model from a sketch to a weldments piece and might make a video on the model as my deliverable. Once my deliverable is finished, I will focus on the upcoming presentation in May.

   

 

Week 8

Hi guys!
   
This week we got so much done.

I finished my first draft the chassis in Solidworks. However, I can't use this model because the dimensions are inaccurate and modifying it to the correct dimensions would be more complicated than making another one with the correct dimensions. I am having some issues with the new model and will need to find a new way to draw the model to make the model as precise and accurate as possible. I also recorded all the dimensions in a word document so I can better model the car when I'm not at ASU.

In addition to finishing the model, the I helped weigh the car and found out that with all the plating the car weighed about 316 lbs. We also changed gearbox and engine fluid. Then we finally got the car working and began some basic testing! Until we figured out one of the brakes was acting up and the front left rotor was completely bent!

    

Week 7

Hi everyone,

This week, most of the interns got lots of solo experience with different parts of the car. I worked almost entirely on making 5 gram to 50 gram (5g interval) brass weights to counter balance the continuously variable transmission. Making the weights took up a lot of time because they needed to be centered and lathed down so that the center of mass will sit correctly and the actually weight of the brass was hard to judge without remeasuring each weight every couple of lathe passes. This week, I couldn't make it to ASU this Saturday, and to compensate for the time not spent in the labs, I worked on more Solidworks tutorials (one of the best ones I found was learning how to use the design library to save parts for new projects) and have begun sketching out a 3D draft of the car for my model in the program. It has been a very slow and meticulous process, but I'm staring to get the hang of controlling the program and the little quirks of the tools. This draft was to basically experiment without a tutorial and get a feel for designing the chassis without exact numbers for the time being. Once this draft is completed, I will probably need to either redefine all lengths and values on this model or I will start from scratch with a new one (though making the second model will be easier and faster than the first one was).

  



 

Thanks for stopping by and come again next week!

Week 6

Hi everyone!

 This week the team was mostly focused on dissembling the old car (after we fixed it up for a meeting with a General Motors representative) and putting the new car back to together so I didn't get to make too many new parts or get many cool pictures since most of this week was transferring parts. However, this year's car is almost finished enough to enter strength and endurance testing.

(cut some pipes to strengthen the top of the chassis)
 
(faced, drilled and used the auto lathe for the first time to make more COM Cups (and found out what their purpose is, used to hold bearings in the suspension bars))

     
(transferred over the suspension and gearbox with axles to the new car)
 

(Bad photo, but this is me taking off the bolts to the engine so we can put it on the new car)

(Took off the old accelerator so we could its cable on the new car)

 
(Cut and lathed down some pipe for the brake pedal to rotate on.)

Week 5

Hi everyone!

This week ASU was on spring break meaning that I got to spend even more time in the labs.

On Tuesday, I worked with the chief engineer to finish a centering piece for the brake calipers so we could finish centering the drill for the outlet holes that still needed to be drilled. After finding the center of the brake calipers we used a CAD program (computer aided design) to find the exact coordinates of where the drill was supposed to enter. Afterwards I went the team's electrical lead and got a tutorial on coding and arduinos.

 

  

 

 

On Thursday,  I had to remake the body panel that made last week because it got super bent and dented. Afterwards, Jack and I took off the old skid-plate so that it could be used to mark off where  tabs could be welded onto the new chassis to hold the skid-plate in place. then we sandblasted the tabs before they got welded in place to get rid of the rust from being cut out on the plasma cutter. Lastly, I finished off the day by added some chamfers to the drilled brake calipers so that the bolts would sit better.

 

  

On Saturday, the team and I found out that the plastic parts used on our suspension system were melted and had not been removed when the tabs were welded to the chassis. All these plastic pieces had to be remade on the lathe. This took most of the day because the measurements had to be super precise and we did make a couple errors and had to remake the pieces. Afterwards, I finished off the day by cutting some steel pipe on the horizontal band saw to make COM Cups.