Week 6

With time winding down before our first competition everyone is working round the clock to make sure things are finished. This week the car was tested on the ASU dirt track and after just a few minutes the gearbox broke. We took the car back to the shop and after an evaluation there was serious damage to the gearbox and it would take 3 days to replace. While the car was out of order it was the perfect time to attach the pickup points onto the new chassis. These pickup points are the tabs where everything is attached to the main frame and by using this method it would save the team valuable time. The test chassis is the same design as the new one, but the new one will be lighter than the test chassis. The purpose of the test vehicle is to break the vehicle and notices what breaks and rebuild it stronger. While testing we found the rear tow links which help the rear tire retrain traction was taking a lot of impact and needed to be made stronger. This week I also got to use the plasma blaster which uses a really hot heat beam to melt metal which allows us to reuse broken pieces and weld it onto another piece.

This week the new chassis really came together and hopefully in the following week the new chassis will be completely done and ready to go. 

Week 5

As this is the 5th year that the ASU team will participate in the Mini Baja SAE race there are a lot of parts on the different cars that are reusable and make life easier. Our job this week was to strip the previous car and scrap it and re-use it for parts. This was very tedious work as we had to remove all the suspension, engine, brakes and brake lines, and everything else that could be taken out. We first removed the a- arm suspension which hold the tires on. These metal parts would be scraped and put into storage. Then we removed the brake lines which would be reused on the new car because they were already calibrated to roughly where they would need to be. Next we had to take off all the previous sheet metal and take apart all the rivets. Some of the sheet metal would be reused while other would be scraped because it was too damaged to be reused. The hardest part by far was taking out the engine. The engine was tricky because of all the little nuances that were attached to it. The engine would be put aside for another time. After the old vehicle was completely scraped we assessed what could be used and what couldn't. Then we attached the brake and brake lines to the new car. This week a lot of progress on the car was made and the car can be run. Although this car is almost finished this will not be the car that we will be racing. This car is the test car where all the flaws will hopefully be sorted out. Now the team must start to build a new frame for the actual car. Next week we hope to have the frame built for the new car,

Week 4

I was out of town the whole week, but the team continued to work on the vehicle. They put in the brake lines, the suspension, gas tank, and engine. The team is hoping to be able to have the car up and running in the coming week.

Week 3

As the car continues to come along the next thing that needed to be done was to fabricate all the side panels. In order to fabricate the side panels the sheet metal must be cut to the exact specifications. The easiest way to do this is to first cut the panels using cardboard material which is expendable and easy to work with. After tracing all the side panels with the cardboard then it was time to cut out the panels using sheet metal. Using the manual sheet cutter machine we cut out all the different panels for the car. Eventually the panels will be attached using rivets which are light weight, but provide maximize support. Due to human error the panels all won't line up exactly so we must use a grinder in order to shape the panels into the right size.

Grinder Machine

As this is a tedious process the panels are still being shaped and eventually riveted on. The other thing that we did this week was sandblast. The sandblast machine is used to removed rust off of metals and return the metals back to their original condition. The team has lots of materials that just sit around and gather dust, so the sandblaster is used when they need to use one of these materials.

Sand Blaster Machine

The Sand Blaster works like the idea of sand paper, but instead it sprays the sand from a high powered gun that works to remove rust. The Sand Blaster is an integral machine because if the metal were still rusty it wouldn't weld as well or be as strong. The team is working viciously to get the car ready because one of the most important parts is testing the car over and over. The car is starting to come together and take shape as everyday more and more vital systems are being placed inside.

What the current car looks like

Week 2

This week I helped create and weld the bumper of the car. The purpose of the bumper is to protect the vehicle from taking damage if a collision were to occur and as part of the SAE safety protocol a bumper is required for all vehicles. The bumper for our vehicle was made out of 1.25 inch steel tubing in order to conserve weight, but to maximize efficiency and strength. We started out by cutting a long piece of steel tubing using the band saw. The band saw is a very high powered saw used to cut tubing and uses liquid coolant to prevent the saw from overheating and to cut the tube more precisely. After this we had to use the coping saw to smoothen out the edges because the band saw although precise leaves very rough edges.

Coping Saw

 The coping saw leaves a smooth edge that provides the best surface to weld onto. Next we had to bend the metal into the shape of the bumper.

Tube Bender

We then had to angle both ends and make sure they aligned together. According to the Mini Baja SAE rules a 7/8 tube should be able to fit between the bumper and the main frame of the car. After making sure the bumper was up to regulation it was time to weld the bumper. Then the teams welder welded the bumper on and all that was left was to make sure it was up to par. Once the engineering lead checked that the bumper was good we were good to go.

Finished bumper