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Thread: SAE Baja Buggy build

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    Default SAE Baja Buggy build



    All of the students at Montana tech and I'd assume other engineering schools are required to do a senior project to graduate. Since I'm in the general department as a welding engineer I have the option of various mechanical, civil, electrical or welding projects. I decided to join the Baja team. Essentially the project is to build a buggy, bring it to the competition and race against other schools. Tech doesn't have a ton of money like other schools so we upgrade the buggy every year instead of building one from scratch.

    The competition is, for the most part, a 4-hour endurance race but it also involves a suspension, maneuverability, sled pull, and acceleration test as well as the endurance race. Our goal this year is to place top 25 since the team last year placed 26.

    The buggies runs on a 10hp engine and a dual clutch gearbox much like a snowmobile. It's nothing amazing but for a bunch of students, it's more than plenty. Our goal for modifying the buggy this year is the decrease the weight from 450lbs to 400lbs. Lift the buggy up and inch or two. Increase the handling characteristics and tweak the gearbox depending on what we want to do with it.

    I only have one picture of it from last years group since I have not had time in my schedule yet to see it. As we work on it I'll keep this forum updated and come competition time (Mid May I believe) I will update on how we do.


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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    I did Formula SAE in college. Great fun. After competition we took it up to Wyoming for Frontier Days where they closed down the downtown streets for an autocross. So awesome. Blasting down the streets, "running" red lights, exhaust noises echoing off the buildings. So cool.

    then about 5 years later, they were doing driver training and some kid crashed it. The carbon fiber monocoque was destroyed. Oh well.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Awesome

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Quick update. Apparently, I was wrong when I said we wouldn't be building a brand new buggy because we are. The goals remain the same but since we are building it from the ground up our approach to accomplishing these goals have changed. As for how we plan on going about doing it we haven't laid anything out yet. A CAD design will be necessary as well as some material and part evaluation will be necessary. The main goal at the moment is to fundraise money. In the past groups have had various companies sponsor the team which is one plan. We are also thinking about holding some events around town. It's important to raise the money not only for the build but also to enter into one of the competitions. There are three different locations but one being in Maryland that leaves us with two options and most of them only have 100 spots that fill up relatively quickly. With that said I can talk to the group if any of you are interested or know of someone or a company interested in sponsoring some money let me know and we can figure something out that can be agreed on by both parties.

    The majority of the design and fundraising will be done this semester and the build will be next semester. For now, I'll be updating this thread for you guys as stuff arises and also to help with bookkeeping for the project since we are required to turn in reports throughout the year.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Today we discussed some logistics and various other things regarding the buggy and competition. Our main focus still is fundraising money. We need $1300 by October 3rd to register in the event. We believe there is some money left over from last year that may transfer over so we can cover the entry fee but we will need more for materials and other aspects of the project. We talked to someone who is apart of the alumni association so that we can get in contact with some alumni who would be potential donors.

    Other than that it sounds like the buggy design is fairly solid but we will make some various tweaks since the goals laid out to us by our mentor was to reduce weight and lift the buggy an inch or two. Once we get the money and start focusing on the design our plan is to use the old buggy to test parts. One part of the competition is a design aspect and the judges look for experimental testing and analysis of the parts. Some schools who have a lot of money and resources make their own gearboxes, calipers and various other mechanical parts that a hobbyist wouldn't make. Our mentor mentioned how time-consuming and expensive that would be and the how they have a higher probability of failure and reliability. We most likely won't be going that route but will be building the frame, suspension components, and a couple other things. Our main concern through all of this will also be passing the qualifications. Safety is the main concern and if we don't pass the safety inspection we won't be able to race.

    Here are the two old buggies. We will essentially copy the frame design but implement some changes as we get into the testing and design phase.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Quick update:
    The semester is almost over and we are starting to get some design done. When I get some files I'll upload what I can. I won't upload everything for confidentiality since we don't want other teams seeing exactly what we are doing. I don't suspect anyone would look here but just for safe keeping.

    I'm in the frame group and as of right now we are working on getting the design figured out. Frame preliminary design is due January 15. We just have to submit our CAD design and a material invoice so we will get okayed and won't lose our registration spot. One of the main objectives with our frame is to weld as little as possible. Reason for this is because welds tend to be weak points and while we have some certified welders in our group it's usually best to avoid welding where possible. As my adviser says "Don't weld." Our other concern is the material we are going to use. Some people are suggesting Chromoly steel over plain carbon steel. This would give us several advantages over plain carbon steel one being weight. Our mentor for the buggies biggest objective for this year is weight reduction which Chromoly steel would provide. Although Chromoly would run a much higher price which for us at the moment is a big deal. Also, Chromoly to weld properly takes a number of steps instead of just cleaning and welding so that is something we will be taking into consideration.

    Our current problem is getting the engine order. I was under the impression that we didn't have a purchase deadline but according to SAE we have until Dec 15 to order it. While we have the money for it, all of the money is in our school account which is a pain to take money out. Currently, I'm getting an account set up with the distributor so we should be able to get it ordered in time.

    Our other problem was we inherited $3000 debt from the previous year's team. We were able to get $2000 from the school but that still leaves us with $1000 we need to come up with. The school is going to set up a crowdfunding page for us but not until the new year. While we don't have to pay off the $1000 anytime soon I still don't like having this debt looming over us.

    Everything else is running smooth and I will keep you guys updated as new progress arises. I'll post the crowdfunding page on here if any of you are interested in donating or being a sponsor. The crowdfunding page will include updates on our progress and all donation are tax deductible. If you want more info feel free to message me, I'm more then glad to talk about it with you.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    With the start of spring semester, things have been kicked into high gear. All of our modeling, for the most part, is done. We decided to go with the front brace model since it allows for a shorter wheelbase and height. Overall compared to last years buggy we will shorten the length 10" and the height 4" but keep the width the same. This will allow for a lighter buggy which is our main goal for this year since our adviser believes last year could have been top ten if their buggy was a couple pounds lighter aside from some mistakes at the competition which we have no control over at the moment. The front brace also allows for the welds to be under compression instead of tension or shear stress. For those of you who don't know no matter how good you are at welding or not matter what you do welds will always be under some sort of stress. With that said loading welds under compression allows for the least amount internal stresses making them stronger for our application, depending on other projects it may be more imperative to have them under tension or shear.

    Top is front brace, bottom is rear brace.



    The most important thing to us recently has been deciding what material to use for building the frame. SAE requires a minimum of 0.18% Carbon in any steel used along with some other basic strength standards that have to be met. These requirements are only for the primary members of the buggy which are shaded black in the figure above. The secondary members (white) can be any carbon content or strength. We broke down our material choices to 4130 and 1020. 1020 being plain carbon steel requires no pre or post weld heat treatment so building the buggy will be easier, quicker and less expensive. The problem is 1020 is 0.01% off the bending strength requirement, which we could possibly get away with but we decided to not push it. The other choice was 4130 which will meet all the requirements with no problems but requires heat treating for obtaining the correct microstructure after welding to maintain material and weld strength. This would entail pre-weld heat treating up to a certain temperature then after PWHT to allow the HAZ and weld to diffuse and reduce grain size. Being that the buggy is relatively large PWHT would require a large furnace and someone willing to let it sit in there for at least a day. Using a furnace for that long would be a hefty bill but we were able to find a business in town to donate time to us so we could get this done. The additional strength of 4130 allows for less material to be needed to meet strength requirements. Due to this overall, the buggy will be some 30lbs lighter than the 1020. The higher strength also means that the material will cost more but from some quotes from the local materials distributor, it'll only cost $60 more. So with all of this in mind, we decided to go with 4130, higher strength, donated furnace time, lower weight and only slightly more expensive.

    With all of this in mind and our plan to reduce the number of welds on the buggy to as few as possible, we ordered some very cheap A513 steel to make a practice frame. This is since no one on the team has ever bent pipe the A513 will allow us to have plenty of practice bends and for me and the other team member welding up the buggy to get some practice in welding. That pipe should be in Tuesday and I'll make sure to get some pictures for you guys since the thread is seriously lacking in pictures.

    If you guys have a question feel free to ask, doing so may bring to my attention some details we may have overlooked.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Quick update. The original design for the was to use 1" 0.065 tubing for the primary since it would pass all the qualifications without any issues. For the secondary, the person who drew up our frame design went with 1" 0.035 (20 gauge) tubing for the secondary. I was a very strong advocate against this since I didn't believe the tubing its self would be strong enough for the terrain but primarily for the nightmare of welding it. This was initially dismissed by the other members because of the desire to save weight. I talked to an old team member who is now an instructor at Tech about all of this and he also strongly advised against this. With him and the other mentors backing me up on this, the group then decided to change the secondary to 0.065 as well which will still be somewhat of a pain to weld but much less so than the 0.035. Talking with the old team member he was telling me how the course is designed to break your buggy. He was explaining to me if you took a brand new 4-wheeler on it and ran it for the 4-hour time duration that would break as well so a buggy built in a couple months by a couple of undergrad students will definitely break. I'd much rather have a suspension piece or something that can easily and quickly be bolted on and off break then a piece of the frame bending or breaking causing serious misalignment of the powertrain or suspension. With the change in 0.065 tubing for everything the price will increase some but it shouldn't be drastic or anything out of reach. We will hopefully get the frame steel ordered here in a week or two and get to work putting the bad boy together.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Started bending some pipe today. I'm glad we finally got to start doing some hands-on work, I was getting a little antsy with all the talking and designing.


    Bending Practice

    On Monday one of our instructors came in and showed us how to use the pipe bender and we ended up making a 14"x14" square which can be seen in Figure 1. I was also given a bending program by the instructor which I modified to fit our needs a little better which can be seen in Figure 2.

    Figure 1: 14"x14" square


    Frame

    Today we bent the hoop and main roll bar of the buggy. Since we are using 4130 for the buggy and that stuff is not cheap like stated above we purchased some A513 earlier in the year for much cheaper. If I remember correctly we got 300-400 ft for ~$120 of the A513. We practiced on the A513 since it would allow for mistakes without any serious repercussions in terms of cost. Which was smart considering it took us 4 tries to get the main roll bar correct. I was primarily doing the calculations on the length of the cut and the layout marks on the bends. What I forgot was the angle we need for the cuts is the outside of the bends, not the inside. The inside bends refer to the angles in the buggy. In Figure 3 you can see the angles are 155o and the bend we need to make was 25o. Forgetting this lead to miscalculations on the layout marks and incorrect inside angles. The other problem was we were feeding the tube in the wrong way. This lead to certain lengths being too short and others being too long. In Figure 4 you can see one of the sections which should be 30" is actually 20" and another section which should be 8" was 18". After correcting these two errors we were on our way and producing correct bends and lengths.


    Figure 2: Bend calculation sample for the roll hoop.

    This was the excel program I was given and modified for us. The cut length is what the straight pipe needs to be cut at and the layout marks refer to where that pipe is marked for placement in the pipe bender for correct dimensions. I will need to make a few more modifications to clean it up the program but overall it worked as it should.


    Figure 3: Main roll bar with dimensions

    Figure 3 shows the measurements from the Solidworks model of the main roll bar. We just took some quick approximate measurements to make sure everything was close. The main roll bar also includes a compound bend but for today we wanted to get the main bends down. We have some A513 left so we will attempt another bend with the compound bend included in it.


    Figure 4: Multiple main roll bar attempts

    Figure 4 shows that the left two roll bars are incorrect. The leftmost has an incorrect bend angle on bend 2 (155o) and 3 (168o) along with lengths. The middle has the correct angles but still has the incorrect lengths. The rightmost bar is the correct one with the proper 30" and 8" length and angles. Refer to Figure 3 for dimensions.


    Figure 5: Hoop bar with dimensions

    Once again Figure 5 shows the Solidworks dimensions which matched up very closely to the actual dimensions if not spot on.


    Figure 6: The main roll bar against last years buggy.

    As you can see from Figure 6 above our dimensions are much shorter than the old buggy. This was intentional since we are going to shorten the buggy up in the hopes of better maneuverability and considering Tech usually shows up with the biggest buggy at the competition. Our adviser believes that shortening it up a little will help us place better since previous years haven't done that great except last year where they place in the top 30 out of 100 teams.


    Figure 7: The Hoop bar against last years buggy.

    The plan is to not only shorten the buggy lengthwise up also height wise (see previous posts). We didn't take any measurements but as you can see from Figure 7 the new hoop bar is significantly shorter than the older one. It is also wider which was intentional as well.


    As for assembling anything that will be in another couple weeks once we get the 4130. But I am glad we were able to practice bending on some cheap material so that we don't screw up the expensive stuff once it's in.


    Welding

    The last thing that's a concern at the moment that I'm in charge is the welding of the buggy. Since I'm not terribly good at GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding, the proper AWS name for TIG) we are going to have another kid weld it together since he is proficient at it. What I can contribute to though regarding the welding it the steps are taken to weld it. 4130 not being plain carbon steel can't be welded as is since the chemical composition is different and doing so would lead to either martensite (type of grain) growth or increased grain growth in the HAZ (Heat Affected Zone, Base metal around the weld which is affected by welding) which then decreases the strength of the HAZ. Taking this into consideration generally you would have to preheat 4130 and post weld heat treat it to some temperature but since what we are working with is so thin that won't essential. The plan is to just go through half of the quench and temper processes to strengthen the HAZ after welding. In reality, it won't be quenched and tempered in the traditional sense but more so normalized (I can go more into quench and tempering along with normalizing if anyone wants clarification or does not know what either of those heat treatment processes is upon request but this post is already pretty lengthy). We will probably only do the heat treating since we have access to a furnace since a company in town has donated time to us. Otherwise, we would probably skip that part since furnace time isn't cheap and we are already strapped for cash.


    Suspension

    As for the suspension, one of our members has purchased some Fox shocks for the buggy and will finish the Solidworks model with those dimensions since the current model shocks in the model possess different dimensions. Once that is complete the frame and suspension models can all be mated and hopefully, if everything is correct we can be on our way to building.

    The main problem regarding the suspension is the building of the control arms. The bending die we have at the school has a 4" radius and if I remember correctly the control arms would need a radius of 1" or 2". We did some searching for a different size die but had no luck and because of that, the arm dimensions will have to change. With this in mind, the head of the suspension group decides to have the upper arms not inline. What I mean by that is instead of having the upper arm mounts inline to raise the back mount up so that they are "**** eyed." This will help with breaking since it will help stabilize the buggy and keep it flat instead of all of the momentum pulling it forward and unloading the rear suspension. Essentially think about when you are breaking hard and the front of your vehicle dips and the rear raises. By changing the mounts the head of suspension believes this will be minimized significantly. While this won't completely stabilize the buggy it will reduce that unloading of the rear suspension and accommodate for the equipment restrictions.


    Other

    There are two more things we need to have situated within the next week or so. The least pressing in the frame documentation. While our frame model was passed by inspection we still need to provide SAE with our mill specs on the 4130 which is just a matter of the supplier sending them to us. The most pressing is the cost report. SAE wants a full cost report on everything we are purchasing and using for the buggy. From the steel being used for the frame to the bolts that hold everything together. The main problem with this is we haven't purchased a lot of parts due to limited funds but the suspension and powertrain groups have pretty much decided what they will be using for parts so it's really just a matter of filling out the cost report. The last real issue is where we will be staying during the competition and how we will get down there. The plan is to stay at my parents' house going there and leaving since driving from Butte MT to Pittsburg KS is 22 hours. Doing so will split the drive in half. The problem though is what vehicle we will use to transport ~9 people and the buggy. One of the kid's parents is from Pittsburg so they offered to drive down with us and let us use their truck to tow the buggy. That leaves what to do with the other kids. Right now we are trying to figure out if we can get a campus vehicle to drive down there but that may be more work then its worth due to all the paperwork and red tape from the school. As for living commendations, we are still unsure where we will be staying since the hotels in town have been booked up. We may try for an Air BnB but if that doesn't work we will just post up at a KOA or another local campsite for the week.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Currently having some problems with images posting I'll get that fixed here in a couple minutes

    EDIT: They appeared to be fixed. Please let me know if you can't see any of the pictures on the previous post.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Visible - now to go back and read...


    Thx!

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    We just got our donation page up and running, if any of you would like to donate the link is below. There is no obligation to donate but If you do myself and my fellow team members would be grateful. It has a quick video and a description of the competition. All donations will go towards tax write-offs.

    https://impact.mtech.edu/project/9619

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    If you are looking for some quick updates we have a Facebook page were some of the members update periodically on events and updates.

    https://www.facebook.com/MtechBaja/

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Made some more progress bending today. We ordered some more cheap steel before spring break and made some practice bends with that and bent some of our 4130.

    Frame
    Last update with bending we were just being some of the cheap stuff to get a feel for everything. Today we did some of the same. Practiced the main roll bars but with the compound in them this time. Took us quite a few tries but once we were feeling comfortable we dove into the 4310. Thankfully all of our practice turned out to pay off and we got all of our bends correctly (one of the 7o turned out to be 5o but that’s not a big deal). These bends can be seen in figure 1.


    Figure 1: Finished 4130 bends.

    Due to some rules, the dimension on the roll hoop had to be changed so we bent up another mock piece and placed the main roll bars to see how everything was shaping up. This can be seen in figure 2.


    Figure 2: Roll cage mock-up.

    These went mocked specifically to their dimension but everything looked as it should. Figure 3 as has an example of the schematic I drew up for everything.


    Figure 3: Sample schematic

    What we were find was due to the angle at 14.53" was a compound (bending in two axes) we had to bend the piece backward from how we were originally doing it to get the angle in both directions at that bend. Once we got that figured out it was smooth sailing from there.

    The plan is to do more bending either tomorrow or Saturday so I'll make sure to keep you guys updated.

    Suspension
    The plan for the suspension is to make it out of 4130 but since 4130 is expensive and to save money we decided to chop up an old frame laying around the shop and use that for those pieces. This will save us a good chunk of change and help to get rid of it since our mentor for the project told us we can't sell it. Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. Figure 4 shows the old frame.


    Figure 4: Old Baja frame.

    Last years team was planning on using the frame in figure 4 but it didn't meet specs so they had to build a new one. The material they were using was too small for the primary members but since the secondary and suspension components don't have to meet any specifications we should have no trouble using it for our needs.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Frame
    We did some more bending today and finished everything but two pieces. All in all, it went well except one of the pieces. Due to the limitations of the bender we had to attempt once piece a few times. The problem was that one of the end pieces had a 1.75" straight section then a bend. Using the bender from where you place the pipe in and line it up with the chalk it adds 3" to that spot. So for a 6" straight section then a bend you would place the pipe in 3" from the end then the bend would keep 3" straight then start the bend. Well, 1.75" is less then 3" and due to the radius of the die being used if we were to stick the pipe in the other way it wouldn't allow for the 1.75" section. So to make life easy we just cut the pipe 3" longer so the 1.75" was 4.75" and chopped the 3" off. This seems like something pretty trivial but it was a good learning experience for us since bending pipe for this project is the most any of us have ever done. We should be all finished with bending this week then we will be on to notching and welding.

    Welding
    As per requirements from SAE we have to do a destructive test on two welds and bring them to competition. One it breaking the weld to make sure the material breaks and not the weld. The other is a cross section macro etch of the weld. Today we attempted the breaking strength test after some hard thinking of the best way to go about doing it. Eventually, we got it to break and it was the material and not the weld so it would pass. This can be seen in Figure 1. We will do this again since beating the life out of the steel doesn't make it look too good and might make inspectors suspicious but, nonetheless the weld passed!


    Figure 1: Breaking strength destructive testing.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Made some fairly decent progress this weekend!

    Welding
    As mentioned in the post we had to do a destructive test. On Friday we were able to break the 4130 T-joint. That stuff is significantly stronger than the A527. We broke another A527 with the jig shown in Figure 1 and 2. It took about 4 of us sitting on the table so that the floor jack wouldn't lift the table. The 4130 took 4 of us jumping in unison 2 44 gallon trash cans full of water on the table and someone hitting it with a hammer. The test piece can be seen in Figure 3. We luckily passed the test so now the only thing left is a macro which will be easier than the destructive was.


    Figure 1: Destructive Test Jig.


    Figure 2: Destructive Test Jig (This one has the other A527 T-Joint we used).


    Figure 3: Destructive test on 4130.

    As you can see is in Figure 3 the material broke in the HAZ or just outside which was expected due to the heat input causing increased grain growth which decreases the strength of the HAZ.

    Frame
    This weekend we started assembling the frame. For all of us, this was the first time any of us have ever notched tube and the first day we had a pretty frustrating day learning how to properly notch tube and get everything set properly. Somethings we learned was from watching video is to use a hole saw that is 1/8" larger than the tube size (1 3/8" hole saw for us) to get clean cuts with minimal cleanup. The next was to properly set up the tube notcher. The one we were using had it zeroed and zero but we ended up finding out the true zero was at 3o this was probably our biggest mistake and probably the most irritating. Until we figured this out we couldn't figure out why we had such large gaps when setting the tube together. However, we were able to weld some of the larger gaps using a double filler method with GTAW.

    For the base or floor of the buggy, we made a jig for it to make sure everything squared up so we would be able to check our notching. Even with this, we ended up having on end but 1/4" longer but in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal. The Jig can be seen in Figure 4.

    Figure 4: Base Jig.

    The first day we just got the base done since doing this took us quite a while since we had to overcome the notcher learning curve. Today we got the roll hoop, nose and rear welded up. The roll hoop when bent was too wide at the base and we ended up having the ratchet strap it to close the gap. This was not only irritating because when bending the A527 we bent it up correctly but also because we had to add those extra stresses to the welds. Since it's too wide it'll always have those internal stresses but it's not the end of the world. However, there are some benefits since it made the roll bar a little wider so there should be no problems passing inspection. As for the rest of the roll hoop, everything else went smoothly we were able to mount and weld it in at our desired 20o. The welded roll hoop can be seen in figure 5. After the roll hoop, we then welded the nose and rear to the base. This was another pain since the rear required two notches to mount up properly with base and roll hoop. We were able to get out the desired 10o for both the nose and rear. As you can see in figure 6. These angles will allow for our suspension in the front to be mounted at an angle which was desired for the anti-dive that we are looking for. The rear being a trailing arm system it doesn't make much of a difference. It can also be seen in figure 7 the difference between this years frame and last years frame.



    Figure 5: Roll hoop and base welded up.


    Figure 6: Nose and Rear welded to the base.


    Figure 7: Partial frame versus last years buggy.

    We also did a quick mock-up of the main roll bars. We notched the roll hoop side but not the nose side since it's not a square angle so we stopped there to think over how we wanted to approach this. This can be seen in Figure 8 before any notching was done on the main roll bars.


    Figure 8: Main roll bar mock-up

    This was as far as we got this weekend. As for primary members the main roll bars are the last piece to be welded then the rest are secondaries and we have more wiggle room on them for making mistakes and learning. The hope is to be the end of this week we will have most of this welded together. The rear brace and seat mounts will be the last things welded in to adjust for the transaxle and engine mounting and the seat mounts. After this suspension components are the last thing to build and then it's all a matter of bolting everything up which if I've learned anything from working on vehicles that will be one of the most frustrating parts.


    If anyone has any pointers on fabricating or assembling this feel free to chime in. I'm trying to learn as much as I can since I've taken the lead on assembling this so I want to be as informed about what we are doing as possible.

  20. The Following Member Says Thanks to dscowell For This Post:

    Java (March 26th, 2018)

  21. #17
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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    This is really interesting.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Paul previously posted:
    "This is really interesting. "

    Glad you're enjoying the build. If you have any questions feel free to fire away.

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    It's much more interesting than most of the build threads (including mine) because of the depth of detail.

    So a couple of weeks back you posted up about not doing a typical quench and temper, which I probably don't do correctly. I am as amateur as it gets, I just dunk stuff so I can touch it sooner... what do you do?

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    Default Re: SAE Baja Buggy build



    Paul previously posted:
    "So a couple of weeks back you posted up about not doing a typical quench and temper, which I probably don't do correctly. I am as amateur as it gets, I just dunk stuff so I can touch it sooner... what do you do?"

    Dunking it in water is essentially quench and tempering. If you were to go through the whole manufacturing process of quench and tempering you would heat the part in a furnace then "quench" it in some medium like water or oil then temper it by raising the temperature again and re-quenching it.

    We are going to Normalize it. So instead of putting the parts in water, we will just let them air cool. Doing this the manufacturing way would also be heating up the entire part to the desired temperature then letting it air cool. This will allow us to achieve the desired microstructure we want in the buggy.

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    Java (March 28th, 2018)

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