4. Building and more cading

So we tested out our first prototype, and it didn't look good :( The triangular seating was not very comfortable and the joints were kind of splitting in the middle (probably because of the wood we used). But still not very safe. We wanted to do something different, so we started cading again and figuring out a way to make the kart look nice while still maintaing the kneeling down gesture. Jiawei has figured out ways to do the front wheel and also support for the motor. Our ideas evolved from initially a dove shape to a snoopy shape, and now we're settled on the phoenix shape.

We're bending the 1/8'' aluminum plate to make the entire shape, but we're still not sure whether we should split the whole shape into two parts and waterjet them on two separate aluminum plate or just waterjet the whole part on one plate. Still need to figure that out on solidworks.

.........(ONE WEEK PASTS)

We bent the 1/8'' aluminum plate to make the 'seat':

aluminum seat 

It turns out a bit different from what we thought before cause we never considered about the limitation of the metal bending machine..... LESSON LEARNED! There should have been two more bends to make the knee deck so we can just secure the knee deck to the aluminum frames sticking out from the side. So we changed the plan and decided to use the rest irregular pieces of the 1/8'' aluminum plate to make some bent L-shape brackets to secure this seat to the separate knee decks which are then secured to the aluminum frames.... So one of the top things on the list: cut the rectangles and bend the brackets!

And motor support after several changes:

And rear wheel :

Oh yes, and for the cushion, I was learning stuff at the solar ev team downstairs, and we were waterjetting pink foams last Friday night so there were some leftover foams and I borrowed one piece:

Now the only thing left is steering and it's something we're struggling the most. The first few prototypes all broke when we tried to turn and the recent one we did earlier today doesn't turn properly. We added in some washers in between the two round joints to fit in four wooden sticks so that the hole drilled in the middle doesn't make the structure too fragile. For the turning problem, turns out that we need to increase the torque by increasing the distance. So we did this prototype later this afternoon:

And it looks ok, but we still need to do a final test later tonight - -
Brake lever and thumb throttle on our aluminum tube ;p:

Another thing on the list is to bend the aluminum tube for the steering, that's the one in the above picture....

Our budget review till now: 

Item	Number	Model	Budget:500
motor	1	turnigy aerodrive 6374-149	76.53
controller	1	KBS48121	149
battery	1	A123	75
rear wheel assembly	1	200x50 Rear Wheel Assembly for Chain Drive Razor E200 (Versions 5-27)	25.99
front wheel	1	200x50 (8"x2") Front Wheel Assembly for Razor E150	23.99
Pedal/Sensor	1	Thumb Throttle with 48 Volt Power Meter	17.99
Ball Joint Linkage Shielded, Steel, 1/4"-28	4	6058K25	11.76
Alloy Steel Threaded Rod Plain, 1/4"-28	1	92580A107 (3ft)	4.78
Aluminum 3/4" steering shaft	1	9056K693 (no use)	7.39
screw	1	92196A636	5.22
Brake lever	1		15.99
Switch	1	F48-5595	8.99
1/2 aluminum tube (vertical)	1	1658T45 share Andrew (4 ft)	3.5
7/8 aluminum tube (horizontal)	1	9056K723 (1 ft)	7.39
shaft collar	6	6436K14	19.8
nuts	1	91845A031 (free!)	0
brake cable	1	downstairs?	453.32

So we still have 46.68 dollars left... We still need to get the brake cable and the switch.... And we haven't done the electrical part yet, though it looks like we have everything we need in the lab but still we are saving the money in case something breaks....

Two more weeks before the rolling frame inspection!!!! We were late for the waterjet submission for this week cause our steering problem suddenly propped out so we needed to fix that :p But we've finished the technical drawings and managed to fit the parts on one single sheet (1/4'') Shall wait till next Tuesday!! And hopefully we can put everything together and do a test run this week.