Sandblasting, sandblasting, and more sandblasting!

Week 3

     On Tuesday of this week, we built tie rods to connect the steering shaft of the car to the front wheels. We started off by building a fixture to hold the parts together, and then we cut a thin tube and coped the end of it so that the welder could weld the parts together. The tie rods tie together the steering system and the suspension system, both of which are part of the power train of the car.

     On Saturday, I sandblasted many of the small parts of the car with rust on them. The sandblaster sprays a specialized sand at a high velocity at the metal parts, removing the rust and smudges from the parts. Without the rust, the parts can be safely welded together, as the rust on the parts can adversely affect the weld quality.

Here's a video of the sandblasting machine:

It's not easy to see in the video, but the sandblasting gun that I'm holding sprays out the sand at a high velocity, stripping the piece of metal of its rust. The trigger for the gun is a foot pedal below the machine and the sound you hear is the sand coming out of it. In order to operate the machine, I have to use the gloves inbuilt in it, because the abrasive can cause injury if it hits bare skin.

Night of the Open Door!

Week 2

     The main event this week was the night of the open door on Friday the 19th, a night when all of the lab facilities are open so that the public can come and see the work being done by clubs on campus. As such, the week's work until Friday was preparing the lab facility for the night of the open door event.

     On Friday, we helped set up the lab for the night of the open door. During the event, 
parents, children, students, and the dean came to learn about the Baja project.

Here's a video of Josh, the chief engineer, driving last year's Baja car:

As you can see, the suspension and the shock absorbers allow the car to be driven over the smooth rocks with relative ease. This is an essential part of the building of a Baja car for endurance races.

     On Saturday, we got back to work. We started by building the bumper for the car. We used the tube bender to create the shape of the bumper. Then we used the coping machine to cope the end of the tube, making it fit in place with the frame of the car. The welder then welded the bumper onto the front face of the car.

Here's a video of the coping machine (brace your ears):

Coping tubes leave their ends like this, allowing them to be fitted onto other tubes and welded easily.



After we built the bender, we used the sandblasting machine for the first time to remove the rust off small parts of the car.

Before Sandblasting:


After Sandblasting:


I'll explain more about the sandblaster next week.

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: