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The NASTE Forum → NASTE → NASTE Gravity Racer Program
I am so lucky to have a good friend like Chris Kouba who allows me to use his shop where I am totally spoiled having every power machine and tool (except for a freaking VISE!) available to me to build cool stuff! Thank you Chris!
I had almost forgotten you can actually make metal parts without the use of power tools!......And then I remembered, why would you?
Case in point - Mounting bracket fabbed at my place for the Flyer's hand lever operated rear brake:
...having every power machine and tool (except for a freaking VISE!) available to me...
You have friends with power vises? What kind of swanky circles do you run in? I'll need to up my labor rates!
You'll have to crank it down manually (if I ever get one).
I fully expect you will have a power vise designed, fabricated, and built by the end of the week now that I mentioned it! There are no limits to my expectations when it comes to your engineering abilities! I have seen you in action!
This morning I acquired roughly 400 pounds of lead in the form of used car wheel weights to use as ballast in the gravity cars!
A special thanks goes out to Nolan's Point S Tire & Auto Service in Gresham!
http://www.pointstire.com/nolans
Nice
I need to take pics of the loads of lead that come through the shop from Cali on there way to the battery plant. we talking 1000 lb ingots.
Got more work done on the Flyer today. Completed the fabrication of the rear brake lever and mount, and got it installed in the car. After some tweaking and adjusting the rear brake is now fully functional.
I also took time to install a couple foot rests. Having the heals of my feet sitting atop the center pivot front axle was a little unsettling for me. Now I can rest my heals on these nifty little brackets I bolted to the bulkhead. One of the ideas in Dennis' original design was in the case of catastophic steering failure the driver could guide the front axle and direction of the car with his feet until he could get the car stopped. With the foot rests mounted in this manner that emergency action is still possible, although I'd rather not have to find out if it works!
I also moved the front brake pedal over about 1 inch for more clearance from the left side foot rest.
Took some time out today from packing to get a little more work done on the Flyer. Time to work on adding some ballast. My intent is to get the Flyer up to the maximum allowed weight of 300 lbs. However I do not want to alter its original weight bias front to rear which was approximately 59.5% front to 40% rear at 225 lbs. total weight.
After removing the rock ballast of 14.5 lbs. and moving the 15.5 lb. battery to the rear of the car I was down 30 lbs. on the nose. I replaced that weight with 57 lbs. of ballast in the way of lead and concrete. The extra 27 lbs. over the weight of the rock ballast and the battery will offset the weight of the battery being moved to the rear of the car (in theory anyway).
So as of today the car's total weight is roughly 274.5 lbs. with a bias of approximately 55% front to 40% rear. Before addind anymore weight I will re-weigh the car using the Official Scuderia Kouba Worx Scales! Stay tuned, we're getting close to done!
This is what 48 lbs. of car lead wheel weights look like sitting in the nose of the Flyer!
OK, so how do I hold all those loose car wheel weights in the nose of the Flyer? How about 10 lbs. of concrete?
The bolts were concreted in to use as securing points for any additional needed weight.
You'd better hope you got the weight bias right as that looks rather permanent.
I think you're pretty close to right on that Rico!
I weighed, checked and double checked. If anything I am a little light of where I want to be. I've weighed everything I've removed, re-located, and added and this puts the front end about 10 lbs. heavier than it originally was in relationship to the rear of the car. With my total weight estimate at 274.5 lbs. there should be about 25 lbs. left to add wherever needed to balance it out at around 60% front, 40% rear. Oh, and I still have PLENTY of lead!!!
You weighed the lead, did you also figure the weight of the concrete and water? Cement doesn't dry, it hardens. Whatever water weight you added is still there.
I weighed the concrete but not with the water. I figured the water weight was negative when the concrete dried. Well crap, oh well that's probably just another 7 or 8 pounds. It was only 9 lbs. of concrete and probably no more than a gallon of water mixed in. Even with the water weight added I think I'm still OK total weight -wise as well as front to rear bias. I think now though that the last bit of ballast needs to go right behind the driver's seat.........
I'll get the scales tomorrow and we'll see!
What the hell........what could go wrong?
Yesterday at Chris' he welded up the modifications to the Flyer's steering assembly. The mods were made to tighten up the play in the steering shaft, and to allow the fitment of a standard round steering wheel. Thanks Chris for all the work you put in aon these parts!
Today I re-installed the modified steering assembly and reconnected the steering cable. I had added two additional steering pulleys wich greatly reduced the effort rquired to turn the wheels. I also added threaded turnbuckles attached to the front axle with carabiners also in an attempt to eliminate looseness in the steering system. Lastly I installed spring loaded idler pulleys to take up the slop when steering direction is reversed. Static testing of the steering showed it to be easier to turn the wheels, and the slack that was once present between the pulleys and steering shaft when direction was reversed is now nonexistant.
After I finished up the steering I rewired the horns to the new rear battery location. I relocated the on/off toggle switch to a position on the floorboard just ahead of the seat cushion. I mounted the horn button on the left side of the cockpit at approximately arm level with my hands on the steering wheel. Mounted there I can activate the horns with my forearm without taking my hands off the steering wheel.
Next it was time to put her on the scales. My total weight estimate from the previous addition of cement and lead was 274.5 lbs. I figure the scales to be about + - 5 lbs. The scales showed the Flyer to now be 176 lbs. front, and 98 lbs. rear, for a total weight of 274. With the prior weight of the car measured at 225 lbs. that is a net gain of almost 50 lbs. The original weight bias was 60% front to 40% rear. At 274 the bias is now 64% front to 35% rear. I figure if I add the final 23 to 26 lbs. right behind the seat the bias should end up around 59% front to 41% rear at 300 lbs total weight.
So all in all I feel I have accomplished my goals for the Flyer. I completed the work to tighten up the steering and make it more sensitive to input. I installed the additional rear brake system. I increased the overall weight of the car without upsetting the original front to rear weight bias. And I even made the car a little more comfortable (well at least for me!). Next up is a couple quick test runs, after which the Flyer goes back up to Dennis Hart's shop for bodywork and paint.
Here's the modified steering system with the additional pulleys, turnbuckles, and spring mounted idler pulleys. It looks busy but all the parts are out of the way, in front of the driver and below the driver's legs.
For me the driver's compartment is much more comfortable with the seat's bottom cushion. I will admit the steering wheel feels weird being at a 90 degree angle to the floor, but if it doesn't work out in test runs it can easily be changed to something else now.
Some of you will understand the significance of this photo of the horn button.........
Now that the new Scuderia Kouba Gravity Racer site is up and running, we will be posting all the gravity racing information on that site instead of on the NASTE Forum here. You can keep up with what's going on by going to the Scuderia Kouba site here:
http://www.scuderiakouba.com/
Some of you will understand the significance of this photo of the horn button.........
AWESOME!!!!!!
Latest updates of the Hawksbill Furrower.....er, Flyer!!!
As the Scuderia Kouba website developes more of the gravity racing stuff will be posted there instead of here on our slot car site. NASTE is again one of the sponsors of the team for the PDX Adult Soap Box Derby this year. We have started a list of volunteers for this year's race, and we could definitely use more! If you are interested in volunteering and taking an active part in the race this year please let me know! The race is Saturday August 19th!
If you would like to be added to the gravity racing teams email list please let me know. The folks on the list receive information regarding test and work sessions, as well as updates on the Portland Adult Soap Box Derby Race in August.
============Bill
Well my working schedule rules me out.Did read your last test post and have come to the conclusion that u need more fiber in your diet there Bill
MOST of that brown stuff on the ground behind the Flyer in the photo is dirt.............
Wow! What a day. Thanks to all who came out to facilitate the Scuderia Kouba testing. We had Jeff C (winner of the auction at Bill's granddaughter's school) who came out for some shakedown runs. We had the Burns family, doing some "research" to help get the ride down the hill bid up at their daughter's school, we had Beau, we had Howie, and we had Dave (and Bill and me).
Everything went extremely well, although we've discovered that we have under-spec'd the brakes if we want to do any serious mountain road work. They will be fine for Mt Tabor, with one stop and only one corner (which we won't be braking for anyway), but on a ~2.5m run on the way off of Larch Mountain, both Bill and I ran out of brake well before we encountered flat ground. We will be re-evaluating what to do on that front.
In what must be billed as the grudge match of the century, Mr Burns took on Mrs Burns in a head to head drag down the mountain. This was the finish:
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