Soap Box Build - Team Ecurious Ecosse

[pete]

This thread is developing a "project Binky" like fascination. Great effort, keep the posts coming

What he said.

[campbell]

Looking great, Ferg.

Here's our front assembly...


LOL!

Might introduce some castor. oil.

[Ferg]

I was serious about the castor on single pivot steering in your thread. It says the very same somewhere in those links. If you put the pivot forward of you axle line, even only by a few centimetres you'll get the same effect. Much more stable at speed.

[campbell]

Oh don't misunderstand me. After some slalom tests, we are evaluating it

[campbell]

But we still need brakes first.

[Ferg]

Oh don't misunderstand me. After some slalom tests, we are evaluating it

I dream of slalom tests I had to find a couple of parts that won't be here till Mon/tues so steering is far from complete.

[campbell]

We may be slightly ahead of you on testing. Eilidh and her friends all drove it today!!

But we are still behind on tech. Hoped to develop brakes tonight but out of energy after lots of family engagements today. Glass of wine in front of "Riddick" instead.

[Ferg]

Had an afternoon engagement today so not much further plus identified a brake issue.

First off seat mount. Couldn't just put a baton in so did these, bit rough but functional.



You can see the brake caliper fitted in the pic above. Two issues arose with the brakes. I bought a very cheap caliper set from eBay. What I'd forgotten is that the rear brake has a much shorter shaft on it as it only passes through a small peice of frame so a rear doesn't fit on the forks. Bugger. Secondly the distance the cable has to go is longer too so the cables are useless. Sorted the cable issue as I found a longer set on Amazon. For the brakes I've just ordered a another very cheap caliper set. But delivery is now a concern so worst case we take one of the kids bikes to bits for a few days. Getting a bit stressed about it. Quiet day tomorrow making the steering wheel I think hoping the needed parts start arriving.

Here you can see the seat now secured and team Gravity Calamity with sandpaper in hand giving the chassis a bit of a once over.

[Sanjøy]

Will the carbon have cured in time?

[Ferg]

No carbon.....maybe next time! lol

We're now getting very short on time. Couple of updates from the last day or so.

The steering wheel chopped out if ply and modelled as a HelloKitty bow by my daughter.



And realising I need to give this heavy thing a shove off the start line I put in a push bar. If you squint your eyes it almost looks like a spoiler



And finally the bit thats really causing head scratching at the minute. To acheive true Ackerman geometry the steering arms would heavily foul the chassis. We've had to shallow out points at which the steering is actuated. This might actually help high speed steering but it's been a case of 'as close as we can' to Ackerman given the rather bulky chassis and also limited materials. We've been working on a lot of scraps and left overs on the metal front. Bought some steel rod today for the column just to be sure we've got enough but more on that to come.

This is the steering arms now done (first pass ready to offer up to the chassis) with the steering rods. Hopefully get to fit them tomorrow night.

[woody]

Quite impressive Ferg & I particularly like the use of a proper Robin Day Polyprop seat.

[campbell]

Built to last, Ferg

[Ferg]

So the bits we need for the steering column come tomorrow. In the meantime lining up the steering rods there's going to be a bit of fouling. Not me bricking it that we're running out of time, but the full lock to lock of the steering is going to need sone material removed from the control arms and the chassis. Not going to cut snything until the column is in properly.



This evening was spent getting the rods finalised and then seeing if my cross ply cardboard idea might work for the body. Glueing sheets of cardboard together to make them stronger. It kind of works....ish. Reckon we should be operational on Friday and also doing the first body work. It's going to be pretty basic but hey.

As always it starts with a wee sketch.

[campbell]

Wow!

[kerryxeg]

I can see this will be the highlight of the event. If only I had the time...................concept would be the Card Board and Duct tape, sponsored by WD40, all engineering problems covered! I'll bring a camera!