Scaffolding poles + old VW bits + Rotary engine....

Scaffolding poles + old VW bits + Rotary engine....

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PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Monday 16th December 2013
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Oooh, lovely shiny working thing:



Ooops, I, err, it wasn't me, a strange bloke broke it and ran off.



Then there was an incident involving a pillar drill butchering some finely machined components, a tap, some deburrers and some extra parts. I didn't take a photo of those because of their graphic nature to anyone of a pistonheaded persuasion.

Anyway, it all got back to being shiny after some TLC and some T-cut, and I think all the important bits went back in. I'm sure it'll fine.
That bit that pinged off into the corner didn't look vital.





PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Tuesday 17th December 2013
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Look, 1 whole wheel on the floor, we've invented an agricultural unicycle!



And look, a real floor, that's an extra 5 years on my kneecap lifespan!

Edited by PhillipM on Tuesday 17th December 22:54

IroningMan

10,285 posts

252 months

Tuesday 17th December 2013
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PhillipM said:
Look, 1 whole wheel on the floor, we've invented an agricultural unicycle!



And look, a real floor, that's an extra 5 years on my kneecap lifespan!

Edited by PhillipM on Tuesday 17th December 22:54
10/10 flooring skills

0/10 wheel counting skills

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Wednesday 18th December 2013
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The other one doesn't count, it's a barrel, there's no centre/spokes in it, technically not a wheel yet biggrin

abbotsmike

1,033 posts

151 months

Wednesday 18th December 2013
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Poor shiny stuff!

So how come you know best on the shocks? What do you do to them to make it better?

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Wednesday 18th December 2013
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It's not so much a case of me knowing better, it's more setting them up correctly for the appliction - a cheap damper set correctly will be better than the best damper in the world if it's valved wrong.
Having said that, nearly every damper is built to a price, so there's usually some odds and sod you can tidy up or improve in most things - until you get to silly spec dampers - if you're willing to invest the time.

As it is, I'm not using this Penske unit quite how it was intended, so it's just had a little work to make it easier for me when setting things up.

Edited by PhillipM on Wednesday 18th December 15:19

abbotsmike

1,033 posts

151 months

Thursday 19th December 2013
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Fairy 'nuff, keeps me interested at least!

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Friday 10th January 2014
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Well, the new arm revealed one stumbling block after being cycled - the existing rear geometry gave massive toe change with the extra travel we were intent on using, and nothing beneficial either. After hearing Ed swearing about it for a while I had a look and we decided to just re-do the mounting points on the car and make another new arm - I've been wanting to alter some of the rear geometery for a while, so there's really no better time than when you're making a new arm.
We've removed a little of the rear camber change, and lifted the outer pivot to help with the toe curve, which now has about half the previous toe change over the travel and what is there is helping rather than hindering now. As a side bonus that brings the anti squat up a little closer to where I'd like it, and lowers the rear roll centre which should help with a little more traction/grip.
Cheap and cheerful jig to swap the pivot location over to the other side of the car, nothing fancy but it works:



And on with the new, new arms:



It's actually made the area for transmitting load around the bumpstops and damper mounts much neater so they should end up a little lighter too, added bonus!






Edited by PhillipM on Friday 31st January 00:10

IroningMan

10,285 posts

252 months

Saturday 11th January 2014
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Square driveshaft?

rhinochopig

17,932 posts

204 months

Saturday 11th January 2014
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IroningMan said:
Square driveshaft?
It'll be a mock up to help with positioning.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Saturday 11th January 2014
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rhinochopig said:
It'll be a mock up to help with positioning.
This. Just a piece of box section with the ends machined to make it easier to mock up with joint angles and checking plunge. A pair of 30+ inch long driveshafts aren't cheap so you only want to make them once!

vesparider

5,704 posts

147 months

Saturday 11th January 2014
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I might have missed it somewhere, but how much travel will you have? 60-70cm? More?

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Saturday 11th January 2014
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No, nowhere close to that, we're still fairly narrow track compared to Baja/KoH/Trophy Trucks, etc, and our relatively short tyre height hurts travel.
We'll be around 18 inches, give or take, if we altered the tyres you could get another 4 inches easily, but then you're up to the massive desert-racing tyre sizes, which are way too big and heavy for what we do.

The day someone invents a tall, strong, but lightweight tyre for this sport we'll bury the bugger in cash. hehe


Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 11th January 18:37

vesparider

5,704 posts

147 months

Saturday 11th January 2014
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So that's what, 45cm? That's still impressive! Its hard to get an idea of scale in pictures.

How close to London do these races get? I'd love to come and see the buggy in person sometime this year.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Sunday 12th January 2014
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We used to run at Sevenoaks and Waterbeach, unfortunately, both are unavailable at the minute (Waterbeach because they're building houses on it, Sevenoaks because all the posh boys complain about scratching their fibreglass in the woods....)

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Thursday 16th January 2014
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Rear damper mounts ended up a lot neater too:




Watchman

6,391 posts

251 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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Nice welding.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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Looks better without the brown smut on it from the gas/grinding dust, honest, it's not as bad as the camera makes it look biggrin


Edited by PhillipM on Friday 17th January 17:35

Watchman

6,391 posts

251 months

Friday 17th January 2014
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No, I meant it. No sarcasm.

PhillipM

Original Poster:

6,529 posts

195 months

Saturday 18th January 2014
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Watchman said:
No, I meant it. No sarcasm.
Ha, I thought you were on about the bump at the start of the weld on the right of the picture biggrin

Wait, you don't have be sarcastic on the internet? Nobody told me!