SEAS Racing Weekly Update - Drivers needed Sunday

[Ali Forelli]

Hi guys,

We had another great week! On Saturday, Nick, James, and I formed fiberglass and fiberglass mat to the front curve of the female body mold to serve as part of our mold for thermoforming the windshield. We had a bit of trouble with fraying mat and resin that eats through plastic (that stuff is evil), but the piece turned out well!

On Sunday, we met Sam, who is our newest team member and my new best friend! We measured, cut, and assembled the foam head support for the new rollbar. On Monday, we did a carbon fiber layup of this wedge to the rollbar (shout-out to Raquel and Sam for putting up with me and all the epoxy!). We also made a channel for the seatbelt - yay safety!

  

Joe also designed a new engine head, and we sent it over to our friend Mike in NW Labs to mill it for us. On Tuesday, Raquel, Sam, and I set out to attach the rollbar to the chassis. We hit a few unexpected snags, but we worked around them, and 2 hours of dremeling later, I got to do my first solo-layup (note: epoxy is much less fun when you have no friends). Luckily, Joe found me for the last part and helped me finish the layup.

Nick also finished his green training this week!!!! Congrats dude - it only took you 8 months :) 

Still waiting on Sean...

If you've been watching my snapstory for the last 2 days, then you will know I have been to SolidWorks hell and back. I designed (and sadly, redesigned) a giant wooden puzzle to serve as a frame for the fiberglass curve for the window mold. Shout-out to my mom for driving me to Home Depot to get all my plywood. I laser cut it today, and Sean helped me assemble the masterpiece. The fiberglass we formed last weekend will sit on top of the frame, and after some finishing trims and polish, it will be ready for the thermoformer. Look out for an email about when we will go to MIT next week to use the thermoformer.

   

For this weekend, I'll be in Pierce at 10:30am Saturday morning to finish up the window mold. On Sunday, we will meet at 1pm as usual. On Sunday, we want all the drivers to come to the meeting! Now that the rollbar is attached, we are ready to take measurements. Depending on engine status, we may be able to do some test drives. For all the drivers, it would be great if you could bring your driver's licenses and wear comfortable clothes for lying down in a little car. Please let me know if you can make it to the meeting - if not, we can schedule a time during the week to take your measurements.

We also have a presentation booth for the Office of Sustainability on Monday from about 3-5pm. It would be great if we could get people to cover different shifts so we always have someone at our table. Raquel will send more details soon.

Keep up the good work!

Ali