Topic: Building of an FSAE car (Read 18988 times)

Joseph Davis · « **Reply #30 on:** December 27, 2011, 07:08:49 AM »

Quote from: DSharp on December 26, 2011, 10:10:03 PM

Quote from: Joseph Davis on December 26, 2011, 09:33:46 PM
Well, I can't see a chassis that's undergone even halfassed FEA collapsing under itself, so I figured the kids were blowing the engines up because they lack the ear, or experience, to know that instrumentation can only be trusted so far.

If you need a tune or consultation, LMK.

You should come check it out sometime. Our engine dyno needs a little bit more work, and our only running engine is low on compression, was built from a pile of parts by some students who dont have much experience with engines. Ive seen a few shitty Engine Management setups on these cars and quite a few who had engine related problems.

What needs done on the dyno? I've always wanted to play with a water brake.

Phate · « **Reply #31 on:** January 02, 2012, 04:01:07 PM »

Quote from: Passenger on December 27, 2011, 12:14:06 AM

Quote from: Joseph Davis on December 26, 2011, 09:33:46 PM
Well, I can't see a chassis that's undergone even halfassed FEA collapsing under itself

If its fit and welded by a knob its not a stretch.

We had to re build most of our frame last year for this exact reason. The weld strength tests we are supposed to do to show that the car wasn't built by a moron showed just that.

Stuff gets broken a lot at baja competitions. Generally its a combination of a lack of mechanical sympathy from drivers, errors in building (something was measured wrong and welded in and not noticed), parts being underbuilt for the application, or trying something new that doesn't work out. In the case of the last thing, our full hydraulic steering setup (think replacing tie rods and steering rack with hydraulic cylinders), they were basically retrofitted in, rather than designed-into the front suspension, and there was a sideways component to the forces they saw, and we broke our cylinders.

I can imagine that aside from the jumping and crashing into stuff that we do at baja, all the other things apply, in addition to the can of worms that can come from people being allowed to screw with the engines.

Also, there may be some work done to stuff a bike motor into the old baja chassis for maximum death potential.

DSharp · « **Reply #32 on:** January 05, 2012, 05:00:12 PM »

There are a few spots on the chassis I am not satisfied with, but we did not get enough tubes to redo anything.

I seriously doubt it will break though its probably overbuilt and I don't think its usually an issue with formula. Most failures I've see are in the suspension or drive train.

DSharp · « **Reply #33 on:** January 27, 2012, 05:55:19 PM »

Got a few parts machined last night. Some injector bungs and part of a sprocket adapter.

Passenger · « **Reply #34 on:** January 27, 2012, 07:13:54 PM »

DSharp · « **Reply #35 on:** January 28, 2012, 09:57:30 AM »

no, grinding wheel and a stick of HSS.

Passenger · « **Reply #36 on:** January 28, 2012, 01:42:13 PM »

Quote from: DSharp on January 28, 2012, 09:57:30 AM

no, grinding w

That actually makes a lot more sense, I was wondering why the axial surface was turned but the large rad looked poorly milled, you ground the whole rad on the tool and tried to just plunge cut it, tsk tsk.

DSharp · « **Reply #37 on:** January 28, 2012, 05:37:21 PM »

Yea it chattered a little bit when it had a lot of contact but it works! how else do you do that on a manual machine? We don't have a lot of tooling, just the basics.

Passenger · « **Reply #38 on:** January 28, 2012, 07:13:13 PM »

Quote from: DSharp on January 28, 2012, 05:37:21 PM

Yea it chattered a little bit when it had a lot of contact but it works! how else do you do that on a manual machine? We don't have a lot of tooling, just the basics.

You haven't made yourself a rad turner yet? Look it up, you'll love it. Much better way of doing rads.

Passenger · « **Reply #39 on:** January 31, 2012, 08:08:43 PM »

Here you go:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/how-would-you-make-part-240356/

DSharp · « **Reply #40 on:** February 03, 2012, 01:31:59 AM »

I looked it up after you mentioned it. Ill make one next time I need to use it. I have some other things in the works now

DSharp · « **Reply #41 on:** February 05, 2012, 08:45:44 AM »

Got the rotary table working, and made a motor mount for my cnc project.

patsmx5 · « **Reply #42 on:** February 05, 2012, 10:57:26 PM »

Quote from: DSharp on December 24, 2011, 09:39:21 PM

Quote from: 92CXyD on December 24, 2011, 11:56:44 AM
Draw it up Engineering paper and use what ya learned in Dynamics and Statics and prove them wrong.

(Assuming use already took Vector Mechanics, or Statics and Dynamics)
I might just add it in and be done with it.

Quote from: mandrel-bends on December 24, 2011, 06:23:46 PM
You guys seem to be pretty well equipped compared to most universities.
We have had a baja program for a while, and a few failed attempts at a formula car recently, so we have a lot of cool stuff, but there is only about 5 people who work on the project..... so my grades really suck. I have designed about half of this car and I'm the main fab guy at the moment, and I have to do better than a B average next semester or declare my major as something other than engineering, its bullshit if you ask me. Hopefully this will count for something if it comes down to it.

I am going to need some parts from you guys here pretty soon when I start building the header.

Been there, done that. Was spending 70 hours/week doing fsae and just enough to get As and Bs. What helped me go from B's and C's to A's and B's was planning. I kept a calendar that showed when every homework/project/report/test/final was. Take any given task, and plan to work on it 30 minutes to 1 hour a day, then figure out when I had to get started to get it done on time. I used google calendars cause it's free, of course. Plus I had a 1 hour gap between most of my classes, so instead of fucking off during that time, I TRIED to make that time useful, though I still would fuck off half the time (work on the car).

Our school was soooooo similar. 4-5 people who gave a shit, few that were on the team but didn't do much, so it was me and 1-2 other guys basically building the car. Best way to get shit built faster is to get more people on the team and get them involved. But not just anyone, recruit people who have some skills. Cleaning is a skill, so is organizing and moving shit.

FSAE got me my job out of college, but I had to get good enough grades to pull my GPA up to a 3.0. Make SURE that no matter what, you keep or get above a 3.0 before your senior year.

snm95ls · « **Reply #43 on:** February 05, 2012, 11:19:41 PM »

I'll probably be back to turning wrenches when I graduate.

Haven't done any extracurricular activities, and my GPA is so-so.

Oh well. Yet another huge waste of time and money.

DSharp · « **Reply #44 on:** February 06, 2012, 01:48:25 PM »

very true. Time management is one of the most important things you learn in college. I haven't quite got it down yet.

DSharp · « **Reply #45 on:** February 12, 2012, 12:55:58 AM »

I turned the sickest thing I've ever made the other day. I made the restrictor for our car. This was done %100 by me on our manual lathe.

First I roughed it out step by step with a combo of drills and boring bars yea I went a little too far with one of the steps....

Then I used a carbide burr, emery cloth, and some polish and a lot of time...

Then I roughed out the outside and used emery cloth and polish.....

pitobread · « **Reply #46 on:** February 12, 2012, 01:02:46 AM »

Really nice work!

DSMR · « **Reply #47 on:** February 12, 2012, 11:41:08 PM »

I had sex with it.

patsmx5 · « **Reply #48 on:** February 13, 2012, 08:11:53 AM »

Looks tits. I know that took a little planning and care to not fuck up. Are you going to thin the flanges down any more? Might could save a little weight on them.

DSharp · « **Reply #49 on:** February 13, 2012, 01:26:26 PM »

Quote from: DSMR on February 12, 2012, 11:41:08 PM

I had sex with it.

Quote from: patsmx5 on February 13, 2012, 08:11:53 AM

Looks tits. I know that took a little planning and care to not fuck up. Are you going to thin the flanges down any more? Might could save a little weight on them.

I did today, hard part was making the part rigid enough to turn it.

DSharp · « **Reply #50 on:** March 03, 2012, 12:36:33 AM »

Iv'e been kinda slack recently but Iv'e been hitting the books hard. I'm going to do some serious work over the next week.

HiProfile · « **Reply #51 on:** March 03, 2012, 11:47:25 AM »

Quote from: DSMR on February 12, 2012, 11:41:08 PM

I had sex with it.

Lucky, I wouldn't even fit in the big end with lube. $:-\$

DSharp · « **Reply #52 on:** March 18, 2012, 10:25:51 PM »

MTZ · « **Reply #53 on:** March 20, 2012, 01:28:52 AM »

where did you learn how to do all that machining bro ? looks great

DSharp · « **Reply #54 on:** March 22, 2012, 10:18:58 PM »

I had one short class a few years ago, but mostly been teaching myself.

Quada · « **Reply #55 on:** March 24, 2012, 11:07:19 AM »

What made you guys go with a 600cc four cylinder over say a 525 single cylinder KTM? Do you plan on using the engine as a stressed member?

DSharp · « **Reply #56 on:** March 25, 2012, 06:46:11 PM »

we had one already, hondas are reliable, cheap and make decent power even with a crappy setup, not to mention they sound much better than a single IMO.

snm95ls · « **Reply #57 on:** March 30, 2012, 03:28:08 AM »

Doing some work!

Our team is spoiled as fuck methinks. We have multiple CNC machining centers on campus. lol.

DSharp · « **Reply #58 on:** March 30, 2012, 11:04:45 PM »

We have a 3 axis and a 5 axis, but the 5 axis belongs to school of technology. The 3 axis doesn't get used much, our machinist is overworked and underpaid so he doesn't have much time to donate to us, lolz.

DSharp · « **Reply #59 on:** May 14, 2012, 10:17:03 PM »

Car is finished. and its fast as fuck.

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Author Topic: Building of an FSAE car (Read 18988 times)