Well, tonight I’ve had one of those evenings when you discover that your fine, shiny 2-dimensional plans have been complicated by the subtleties of a 3-dimensional world. For reasons that may include the existing frame not being a perfectly square C-channel, despite my best efforts I have an error in my measurements and therefore in the shape of the new frame segment. A very slight error, but one I intend to correct before I go any further.
A good bit of work, but not much to show for it. I’ve roughly cut out the first two pieces, and in doing so I can tell pretty clearly that I currently lack the skill to do an accurate cut with the plasma cutter. Even with wheel guides on the torch head, I can’t move my hand steadily enough to prevent skips (where the torch does not cut all the way through) or re-welds, and I doubt I’d be able to follow the line perfectly. This is a shame, as I’ve found the cutter produces a surprisingly even and precise edge with very little slag underneath, if it’s moved smoothly. This cutter can be upgraded internally for machine control (CNC); I’m really wishing I had space for an X-Y table.
Alternatively, what I could really use right now is a metal-cutting bandsaw. I have one that belongs to a friend, but it’s not made very well and despite attempts to adjust it, it’s developed a habit for throwing the blade — every few seconds. It’s probably not really up to the task, and I’m reluctant to drag it out of the attic just to realize that it’s worthless. I may end up using a jigsaw, but I really don’t like that idea either.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve got so far.
At this point, I now have the pattern for the new shape of the frame, ready to cut out of 1/8 inch steel plate. How I got here from where I was last time, involved some important decision-making.
Here’s where things get interesting. Today I spent some time getting a design started for the frame modification. This effort starts with a single question — where does the front mount for the 4-link suspension go, relative to the frame? The second question is then, how do I reshape the frame to accommodate the mount, and allow for suspension travel? The way I’ve chosen to work this out is in a full-scale drawing on a rigid surface, on which I can trace the parts.
I did a bit of work this evening, removing the forward crossmember that supported the bottom of the bed near the front, and removing one of the two bump-stop mounts. This doesn’t sound like much, but it was actually pretty slow going.
Well, I managed to get lucky on Craigslist, and the old rear axle, leaf springs, shocks and brakes are gone. I’ve brought the new axle housing down from the attic and put in in place where the old one was, but not without a small snag.
Between the less-than-successful but still enjoyable EAA conference near Chicago last year, the release of Who Killed the Electric Car (which AustinEV supported with a car show at a theater in Austin), another great showing at the Renewable Energy Roundup, and most recently our successful and encouraging showing at the Sustainable Shopper’s Ball in south Austin, 2006 wasn’t exactly a slow year for EVs, AustinEV or EAA. It has however, been a very slow year for the Ohmbre project, but this is fortunately beginning to change now.
More on what’s been going on lately in a subsequent post.
For now before I go to sleep tonight, I just wanted to note that this site and the project behind it are not dead. I’m currently preparing the site for that anticipated point in the near future when it will be worth looking at; I’ve upgraded the Wordpress software and have installed my first attempt at stemming the flood of comment spam I’ve been receiving for the past few months (you’d think the spammers would go after a site that has people reading it). I’ve set up a “captcha”, which is the little picture of some distorted letters and numbers that you have to type in when entering a comment, so I know you’re not a piece of software blasting my server with spam.
Well, as I don’t have to point out, it’s been a while. This time it’s actually legitimate however, as I really haven’t had a chance to do anything with the project at all since my last post.
Since then however, there have been issues with the intended design of the heater core, and I’ve been advised that my approach would not be effective — that in fact, it possibly would not work at all.
So, I’ve had to seriously rethink everything, and I’ve been worried that not only would I have to change my control plan for the heater, but that I wouldn’t end up getting the level of control I’d wanted. Instead of smooth electronic control like a light dimmer, I’d instead have to deal with using relays to selectively switch elements on and off to select from a discrete set of output values.
I can’t be any more clear about the subject of this post than what I’ve selected as the title: this post is a review, it’s about a tool, and … well, it’s not a happy story. I don’t intend on doing this sort of thing here very often, as that’s not what this site is about, but when I get this angry I really want to vent. I’ve been duped, by slick advertising and a full-scale marketing blitz involving several participating companies (including Coleman, Radio Shack, and others), into buying a cheap gimmick that can’t hope to live up to the claims of its manufacturer.