First Week of Work!

Week 1

     On the first Monday after school ended, we went over to the Simulator Building at the ASU Polytechnic campus to meet with Mr. Contes and figure out our work schedules. We didn't do any work on the Baja car on that day, but we learned that the car's frame was already done and that the team planned on having a working car by Friday the 19th.

     On Tuesday, I met with the team for the first time and we went over the work that we had planned out for that week. After the meeting, I worked with Louie to cut tubes with the DoAll Band Saw to 15" and 15.5". After that, I met with Josh Patton, the chief engineer of the Baja team, and we discussed SolidWorks, the program that the team used to design every aspect of the car. I learned the use of toe, camber, and caster in the alignment of the wheels, and found out that the team was planning to use a 5-link system between the frame and the wheels to improve on the 3-link one they used last year. I then worked with Zach Yeskey to build a fixture on the milling machine out of aluminum. He taught me how to use calipers to measure distances down to thousandths of an inch, and we built a fixture to hold parts as we put together the arms between the frame and wheels of the car.

Here's a picture of the band saw:

     On my final work day this week, Saturday, we used the lathe machines for the first time to make bushings for the car. The material we used was an industrial plastic that the team used last year. However, we only used it for practice, as the material absorbs moisture and ends up breaking the link arms.

Here's a picture of the lathe machine: