August 2023 Update

29th August, 2023

At the beginning of August I had a meeting with Encocam one of my sponsors to discuss the project and to discuss some of the items that I would like to get some assistance from them with.  There are a number of items that are simply too large for me to manufacture with my small hobby machine tools, for instance the large main beams and large diameter wheels.

I would like to thank Encocam along with another of their brands Bespoke Composite Panels for agreeing to assist me with some of these component and also providing some of my raw materials for construction of the main body.

I provided BCP with CAD drawings of the main beams and they scheduled these for manufacture within a couple of weeks.

The main beams are approx. 1800mm long and have been manufactured by BCP in 6mm thick honeycomb composite and weigh around 950g each, which is a considerable weight saving over solid aluminium.

Next, I needed to design a build frame to support the main beams, as these provide a foundation on which all other chassis components are built around.

 

The material has been ordered for the building frame and once this has been constructed then the build of Bluebird can begin.  I also took delivery of a new 3D printer, which has a printing volume of 400mm x 400mm x 450mm.

With this new 3D printer, I have the ability of printing much larger components than was possible with my existing resin printer.  Currently I expect to 3D print the following components. 

    • Tyres
    • Cockpit interior components.
    • Body details.
    • Other components which cannot be manufactured in aluminium.

I have 3D printed a single wheel as a test and to allow tyre fitting tests. I printed some different tyre compounds with various cross sections in order to verify which would provide the best performance.

 

For the sake of repeatability and accuracy I decided to fit a DRO to my lathe to match the one that I have already fitted to me milling machine. This was quite a challenge as my lathe was never designed to have a DRO fitted and some of the fitment was quite challenging.

Next Update: September 2023