Laying Up The Carbon Fiber

Plug Primed!

Plug Primed and almost ready for carbon fiber.

Testing the Chassis

Video and images of testing the chassis for turning radius and overall functionality.

Building the Chassis

Our chassis is made entirely out of aluminum 6061 square and rectangular tubing. The components necessary to bolt the wheels to the chassis and calipers were sent out to be machined. Overall it was designed to be as stiff as possible while also being light weight. 

 Here you can see Mike and Nick cutting all of the aluminum tubing to the correct lengths and angles.

 All of the components placed on top of the wooden mock up chassis.

The chassis getting welded.

 Here you can see all of the pieces that were sent out for machining.

 Rear components bolted up to the chassis.

 Nick holding the chassis on top of the underside of the body to make sure they will fit together.

 Jig specifically built to weld the foot bar together.

Building the Body

Building the body has become the most challenging task for our team. There are a total of 72 cross sections that needed to be cut out of foam and fit together. 

 In the photo above you can see the plotter sheets that were printed to used as a guide to cut out all of the sections. The foam that we chose to use is regular insulation foam that you can buy at any Lowes or Home Depot.

We used a jigsaw to cut out all of the sections. We found that this was actually easier and faster then using a band saw or any other machine for cutting. 

 In this picture you can see all of the cross sections loosely placed together after cutting was finished.

 The sections were glued together using liquid nails or epoxy and then clamped.

 Azim and Mike sanding down the nose of the plug.

Using straps, the remaining larger foam sections were glued together.

 We did however run into a problem with the sections coming apart. To solve this issue the outside of the foam was fiber glassed to add additional strength to the plug.

 The fiberglass was then grinded down to remove all the high spots on the surface.

 Here you can see the test plug and full size plug side by side.

 Multiple coats of plaster were used to produce a smooth finish.

Due to the amount of gaps on the bottom of the plug, our team decided to fiberglass this as well.

Body Test Plug Built

Test plug prepped and ready to start laying up carbon fiber on various surface coatings.

 Figure 1. Plug was created using various foam cross sections that were glued together.

Figure 2.  Foam after sanding

Figure 3. Plaster applied to outer surface of foam to create a smooth surface.