Project Countach

 The first part of the month of March was spent honing the final design, and then mulling it over for a bit to make sure I didn't have any more changes. I then created shop drawings for cutting and welding, as well as a materials list, to order any supplement steel pieces. Once those arrived, I organized them and started working on marking the steel for cutting. Instead of a typical chop saw, I utilized a "steel demon" blade in my miter saw and circular saw, in order to cut the pieces. It was a bit tricky, but the angles were precise, and the work was well worth it. I used a circular sander bought from Harbor Freight to square up the edges to minimize any gaps. It took me a week to cut all the tube for the 2x4 tube part of the frame (the "backbone"), and a couple of days to weld the components together. I need to clean the shop up so that I can weld the backbone of the frame together in final assembly. In April I will be working on that and cutting the pieces fo...

 Lots of design work in February! I went through several iterations of frame design in CAD. I also utilized our 3D printer for each iteration. I think I am close to a final design. I am certainly able to start work on the main frame backbone (the 2x4 steel), but details like seat size, body position, etc. I am still trying to work out. Like I tell my boys, we can design this a million times in CAD easily but making changes once we cut and weld are a lot more difficult (and expensive)! The final design will be based on the lowest one in the 3rd pic below. Yes, I still have our Christmas tree up. It's cheerful and helps my depression.