This past weekend was pretty exciting; it was our first build with final materials. After working out the proportions with our wood prototype it was time to get dirty and make this thing happen.
Andrew has made the model slightly longer to accommodate our lanky driver. Here you can see him working in Sketchup while we design our braking and steering systems.
Ackerman angles are pretty cool and will help our cart control better as it rockets down the hill.
On Saturday, we arrive early at the shop with our materials: 24 ft of 1.5" square steel tubing for the frame, a 26" long 1" dia. steel rod for our axle, and some tubing for our steering wheel. Over the next two weekends, this metal caterpillar of material will transform into a magnificently robust butterfly of a frame. I'm sorry.. that metaphor wasn't very rock 'n roll, was it? It won't happen again.
Measure. Mark. Measure. Mark. Measure. Mark. That sums up the first half of our day. Boring. Bring on the CHOPSAWWW!
What!!? LAME! I thought these things were supposed to throw off a ton of kick ass sparks! What gives?
YEAAAAAH! Much better! The room is
ablaze! I'm going to spare you the several dozen pictures I took of this part of the process. But it was freakin' awesome. Those square tubes? They belch sparks like a windup nun on crack.
I'm not kidding. That's Satan's breath right there.
There's a lot of slag left on the cuts and it can be quite sharp. The next step is to grind the edges smooth so it doesn't 1) cut whiny punks that can't handle the awesomeness of this vehicle 2) get in the way of welding later.
That's the end of Day 1 for the Brutal Bus build. All of our pieces are cut to size and ready to weld tomorrow! You're right, Andrew, that does deserve some horn.
Andrew has made the model slightly longer to accommodate our lanky driver. Here you can see him working in Sketchup while we design our braking and steering systems. Ackerman angles are pretty cool and will help our cart control better as it rockets down the hill.
On Saturday, we arrive early at the shop with our materials: 24 ft of 1.5" square steel tubing for the frame, a 26" long 1" dia. steel rod for our axle, and some tubing for our steering wheel. Over the next two weekends, this metal caterpillar of material will transform into a magnificently robust butterfly of a frame. I'm sorry.. that metaphor wasn't very rock 'n roll, was it? It won't happen again.
Measure. Mark. Measure. Mark. Measure. Mark. That sums up the first half of our day. Boring. Bring on the CHOPSAWWW!
What!!? LAME! I thought these things were supposed to throw off a ton of kick ass sparks! What gives?
YEAAAAAH! Much better! The room is ablaze! I'm going to spare you the several dozen pictures I took of this part of the process. But it was freakin' awesome. Those square tubes? They belch sparks like a windup nun on crack.
I'm not kidding. That's Satan's breath right there.
There's a lot of slag left on the cuts and it can be quite sharp. The next step is to grind the edges smooth so it doesn't 1) cut whiny punks that can't handle the awesomeness of this vehicle 2) get in the way of welding later.
That's the end of Day 1 for the Brutal Bus build. All of our pieces are cut to size and ready to weld tomorrow! You're right, Andrew, that does deserve some horn.
You should be a comedy writer. Your material is WAY better than anything on Saturday Night Live!
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