All Power to the Engines

As you may have guessed from the title, we have been putting a lot of time testing and working on the new Briggs and Stratton 10HP engine. According to official SAE rules we are not allowed to enhance or modify the engine in any way for fairness of competition. However, when the engine arrived, some repair work was inevitable. The first major issue was that the front of case was smashed in a bit from shipping causing the engine’s pull cord not to retract. This was fixed by switching the front casing with an identical front casing from an older, but identical engine. The second problem was that the armature gaps were incorrectly spaced. They are suppose to be .008 to .012 in away from the rotating part of the engine, but most were either touching or a little beyond the .012 in guideline. With a little bit of tightening and tweaking they were a quick fix. Once all the repair work was completed, we set out to test the engine by breaking it in. We mounted the engine to a piece of plywood and ran it outside for thirty minutes at a time with time in between to let the engine cool.

In addition to the engine, more work is needed on the car to make it a rolling chassis by mid- March. The engine cradle was assembled with the tubes internally sanded down to allow the drop members to essentially slide in and out of the frame smoothly when required. The second task was to fabricate the gas and brake pedals. In addition to the pedals themselves, a stop for the gas pedal was also needed to ensure the gas pedal was not overextended. This was all fabricated on top of a pedal box that will later also hold the brake reservoirs for the brake fluid.

*** This will be the last blog before Spring break, which starts next Saturday. The team looks forward to a well deserved rest before coming back to finish the car on the last quarter stretch of the SUNY IT academic year. ***

*** As the new version of SUNYIT mailman does not accept attachments, we can not longer post images to these blogs. In addition, the video embedding code no longer works correctly so there will be no videos either. To see images and videos for this semester and this week please go to our website at: www.sunyitbaja.com.

 

Minutes (2/24/11):

• Went to Provost Presentation

• Discussed New Engine Damage From Shipping

• Stated Brake and Gas Pedals Are Mounted

• Discussed Shop Door Access for Select Members

• March Madness Fundraiser Starting Next Week

CFB (2/24/11):

• SAE Baja Approved $300 in Additional Funding

• Alternative Energy Club – $300 Additional Funding Request for Windmill Pole

• Open House - Sat April 2^nd – Mandatory Club Attendance

• Potential Themes for Semi-Formal – Night in Paris, Candyland, and Cirque De Sol – April 15^th - Two free tickets per club.

• Students Needed for Freshman Orientation

• Gamer’s Club – 2GB USB Raffle – $1 ticket $5 armslength

Welding Fever

These last two weeks have been putting the welder and plasma cutter through their paces. With most of the frame assembled, it has been a busy week welding some of the frame members into place. In addition, when the welder and plasma cutter were not being used on the car we were training our new members on how to operate and maintain the equipment [pic]. With a few hours of practice, they were able to comprehend the fundamentals of using these pieces of equipment [pic]. It will still be a few more hours of seat time before they will be experts, but the class was highly motivated and picked up the basics quickly. Welding fever was even more zealous than we thought as parts of the car were found welded when they were not ready to be placed on. Still with a little cutting and grinding, the problem was relatively easy to fix and progress was not delayed at all.

We also had a few other jobs that needed to be accomplished while all the welding was going on. Solid stock, many inches thick, needed to be cut so we placed a new blade on the reciprocating saw and let it have at it [video]. It may not have been the fastest tool, but it gave a reliable cut every time. We also had to modify our Solidworks drawings of the frame from last semester as time went on we decided to make minor changes, for the better, along the way [pic]. Finally, we had a gas and brake pedal to make. The pedals were a time consuming process as they had to be cut out and grinded down to size. After that, the pedals were hammered into shape before being mounted on the car [pics].

We would like to thank everyone who supported Baja during our scratch-off ticket raffle. In addition, we would like to congratulate Wesley Dean as our winner. He will have a good time scratching off $75 worth of scratch-off tickets.

 

Minutes (2/10/11):

- Treasury Report Given.

- Discussed Price Increase in Hotel Stay Due to Missed Promotion.

- Discussed Car Rear End Production Delay.

- Discussed Unauthorized Welding To Car and Rules on Welding.

- Discussed Suspension Problems.

- Discussed School Paying Advisor Hotel Room Fee.

- Discussed Sangertown Mall Promotion for Baja.

Password for the video is: baja

 

New Year, Same Baja (Spring 2011)

*** As there were no shop days or CFB this week, this blog will be entirely dedicated to posting the meeting minutes of the week. ***

Minutes (1/27/2011):

- Gave Post Modem Debriefing of Problems During Last Year’s Competition.

- Discussed Funding Requests From SA & CFB.

- Discussed Shop Cleanliness.

Minutes (1/20/2011):

- Official shop times will be on Monday and Wednesday. However, we will consider Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday if the need arrises.

- We discussed new fundraising ideas. New suggestions are always welcome.

- The material for the car seat has been donated to us.

- Prototype t-shirt designs are due in by next week’s meeting.

- All form for Baja club activation have been turned in.

- Additional funding request from CFB will be handed in next week. Money will be put towards travel expenses and the transmission.

- Market America accounts are being set up for members. We ask all members to please start making their regular online purchases through Market America’s portal so Baja recieves a portion of the proceeds. In addition, most purchases through Market America have a cash back bonus for the individual as well. If you are a member and wish to have your own Market America account then please see the Baja Treasurer (Jeremy Davis).

- Staff and member photos have been taken during this week’s meeting. If you have not had your photo taken yet and wish to appear on the website then please see the Baja President (Joe Albano) or Secretary (David Harrington) during regular shop times.

- The lotto raffle will be starting up within the next two weeks so all members please bring $5 to the next meeting for start up funds. In addition, if you have not signed up for a time to work the booth please see the Baja Treasurer (Jeremy Davis).

New Blog In Use

We have moved our blogging from our previous school host to this one. To see all blogs previous to the Spring 2011 semester go to our archive by clicking here. From this post up the Spring 2011 semester blogs will be posted.