Two projects.. one small, one big!

[JonB]

First, a project my wife and I made in an evening. I call it the worlds fastest Laundry cart, because it's made from spare metal left over from the other project (see below).

http://www.offline.org/~burch/wflaundry.jpg

Most of the welds on the laundry cart turned out pretty nicely given my Novice status. I'm using a "red" PowerMIG 200 w/.035 wire and the recommended settings for 16ga metal (which is what it's made out of).

I did the welds at the top of the cart in vertical position (I flipped the cart around for the rest) and they didn't come out very well at all. Lots of "sagging" for lack of a better word. I think I just need more practice.

Now for the "big" project:

Chassis Photo 1 (http://www.offline.org/~burch/locost/Chassis/Transmission%20Tunnel%2012%2D20%2D2003%2002_640x48 0.jpg)

Chassis Photo 2 (http://www.offline.org/~burch/locost/Chassis/Transmission%20Tunnel%2012%2D24%2D2003%2002_640x48 0.jpg)

It's a Locost, a scratch-built Lotus 7 replica. The chassis is still under construction and is only tack welded together (for the most part) at the moment.

It's also made out of 16ga 1x1 mild steel tubing for the most part, with a little 1" round and 3/4x3/4 box and round tubing here and there.

Here's a closeup of a halfway decent (in my unexperienced opinion anyway) fillet weld on some 1/8" plate for one of the motor mounts:

http://www.offline.org/~burch/locost/Chassis/Motor%20Mounts%2001%2D27%2D2004%20006_640x480.jpg

[arcdawg]

i only got one out of the three pics and i am INTRESTED in seeing the car, that bracket of mount looks good. are you welding up or down ???????

[JonB]

Well, the chassis photos above seem to have been mangled by the forum software, so I'll attach them instead.

You can see a whole heaping ton of pictures at http://www.offline.org/~burch/locost/

[JonB]

Originally posted by arcdawg
i only got one out of the three pics and i am INTRESTED in seeing the car, that bracket of mount looks good. are you welding up or down ???????

The mount bracket I actually welded out of the car in a flat (?) position. I'm pushing the bead when I weld in that position.

The vertical welds on the cart I did "down" (I guess, I'm not 100% sure on the terminology), dragging the bead. Meaning, I started at the top and worked my way down, with the gun pointing up. I think my main problem with vertical welds is that I let the puddle get way too big and gravity just pulls it down on me.

[INTP]

I looked at your photos. Looks like the fit is very good. I'm curious how you got the compound cuts?

I have that book and have always been intrigued by the idea. I thought it might be a bit small, though and entertained the idea of a SLIGHTLY larger version that could use a fox body (mustang) as a donor.

I've had better luck with vertical up as opposed to down. Which were you using?

[JonB]

Originally posted by INTP
I looked at your photos. Looks like the fit is very good. I'm curious how you got the compound cuts?

I have that book and have always been intrigued by the idea. I thought it might be a bit small, though and entertained the idea of a SLIGHTLY larger version that could use a fox body (mustang) as a donor.

I've had better luck with vertical up as opposed to down. Which were you using?

I did the compound cuts by hand with a 4" angle grinder, after laying them out on the tubing with a paint marker and a "squangle" (basically a protractor square). I got the values for the angles from Jim McSorley's plans (he laid out the entire chassis in AutoCAD or some other CAD program). Most of the compound cuts ended up needing a LOT of fiddling with the grinder to get them "just so" but I'm sure it'll pay dividends when I finish weld the chassis.

Like I said above I was using vertical down. I'll try up the next time I have an opportunity. When I finish weld the Locost I'm planning on rotating the chassis to make as many of the welds in "flat" position as possible.

The car is pretty narrow, but appears to have plenty of legroom. We'll see once I get the dash in.

[AAA]

Just out of interest, are you building it from plans or scratch?
I'm assuming plans?
Where did you get them from and how much did they cost?

Mike

[INTP]

Sorry for my lack of reading comprehension re: the word "down". To expand a bit, the rule for vertical that I learned for o/a was to go up on thick material (more preheat) and down on thinner stuff (less preheat, avoids burnthrough.) With MIG, I never was able to get the same penetration going down, even on thinner stuff.

I looked at more of your photos. Great stuff. I envy your Sherline lathe and mill. It looks like you're putting them to good use.

What will be the use of the car when you're done. I read that there was an effort to have Locost racing here in the states, but I have never seen anything.

The book I referred to is:
here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1859606369/qid=1077981837//14/102-1058707-1603307)
It has all the plans and is a very good tutorial as well.

[Slim]

Okay, I'll bite:

What's with the pink elephants? Cracked me up.

Slim

[JonB]

Originally posted by Slim
Okay, I'll bite:

What's with the pink elephants? Cracked me up.

Slim

My first design for the transmission mount I machined was completely flawed and didn't work. Someone commented that "there must have been too damned many pink elephants in the way", and I made that picture. :angel:

[Banzaitoyota]

What are you going to run that 13B NA on?What Fuel Management system are you going to run?

[JonB]

Originally posted by Banzaitoyota
What are you going to run that 13B NA on?What Fuel Management system are you going to run?

It's going to be carbureted. I've got a Racing Beat Holley-flange manifold for it.

[Banzaitoyota]

really should give consideration to the Microtech Stand-alone EMS