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Post by captainamerica on Mar 3, 2012 14:22:24 GMT -5
My name is Andrew and I am building the Spartan Trike in the build projects page. I have been looking at this site for a few months now and decided last week that it would be simpler and more visible then a blog. I am located just north of Sacramento, CA. Most of my work is done in my Dad's garage because my apartment complex has rules against people welding and metal working in my garage.  I mentioned this on the build page, but I will say it again. Nothing I do is commercial at this point and may never be so I will not hold back any information, dimensions, design ideas, experiences and so on that may help you the fellow builder and enthusiast. All you have to do is ask, and I will get back to you when I can. I am in the process of back tracking through the last year of work I have been doing on the build page. I also make no claim to actually know what I am doing on some sort of professional level even though I am a mechanical engineer by education and trade. So when you read my responses realize that its just my opinion. As far as my experience goes, I got my start in college designing and building a formula SAE car that never went to competition because the engine didn't work. I will say right now, I learned a lot about what does and doesn't work during this project. Since then I have designed another formula SAE car just for fun and then moved on to the trike project to replace my road car. |
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Post by scooterrebel on Mar 4, 2012 2:44:04 GMT -5
Love to drop by some day and see what you have done. I am about 270 miles South of Sacramento. I'm planning on going to Lake Tahoe about the middle of September and will be driving through that way.
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Post by captainamerica on Mar 4, 2012 12:28:18 GMT -5
Sure, my project is located in Auburn. If you have ever been through here on I-80, I am about two minutes from the In-and-Out at the intersection of I-80 and H-49. The trike should be drive able by then too.
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Post by captainamerica on Mar 4, 2012 15:49:10 GMT -5
June '11 Shop Pictures The shop kinda looks like crap and not well setup because this was day one of its creation. This is at my father's house, hes a great guy for allowing me to take over half of his garage. A shop vac is a must in every shop in my opinion, I am also a clean freak, I broom the floors and vacuum up all the dust and leaves and everything else that accumulates over a day, everyday I am working. I would also like to point out that the $20 harbor freight special grinder has never failed me, and it blew me away when I was in the welding store and saw them selling the same size dewalt grinder for over $200. If someone owns one of those and could kindly tell me why its worth the money, please do.  This is my father's workbench, that he built with my grandfather, we repainted the top surface, and the vice has since been reattached with a new wood mount. You can never have enough clamps in a fab shop and I find the Irwin clamps to be exceptionally good (and expensive). Their downsize is that they don't have the clamping strength of a C-clamp, make sure you get the ones with the rubber grips. I need to get more air tools, for now the 120 gallon compressor is used to keep the tires full and loosen the lug nuts on my mustang.  This is my Miller 150 welder (modified with a 180 coil), I went for the full size bottle of 50/50 C02 Argon mix because its cheaper over the long run then the shorter bottle. I have welded as deep as 3/16" so far, its supposed to be able to go twice that depth.  The ever useful Harbor Freight cut off saw, haven't had a problem with it yet.  This is where all the magic happens, I am also a NASA fan as I do a lot of contract work for them. This allows me to connect with my home computer and keep an updated CAD model at my fingertips while I am in the shop. It has since been replaced with a laptop.  |
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Post by captainamerica on Mar 6, 2012 2:05:55 GMT -5
Update on what the shop looks like in case you haven't looked at the Spartan Trike build log.  Also got the CNC mill fully functional for the first time since buying it six months ago. 15hp phase converter (for 2 phase to 3 phase power) to power a 5hp spindle, 3 axis motors and a computer. Temco power is a great place to buy from, if your in California they will let you pick it up from their factory if its cheaper then the $300 shipping cost for you. I highly recommend not wiring your breaker backwards, it doesn't work as well. Luckily no one was hurt when it arced to the conduit, and one face palm and a wire swap later and we were in business. NOTE: The reason it arced was because it was hooked to an electric motor. The thing worked fine but as soon as the breaker was used to shut it down the ground was cut out of the system but the motor was still spinning down, thus generating power with no where to go, the arc occurred almost a minute after the breaker was closed.   |
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tryota
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by tryota on Jan 12, 2013 5:03:02 GMT -5
Dam wish we were neighbors wow what cool toys I have to move all my junk out to do any work on my stuff Hopping to weld up some stuff tommorrow stick welder but hey Its better then nothing.
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Post by mtntech on Jan 13, 2013 23:23:12 GMT -5
What are you using to bend your tube?
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Post by Liteway on Jan 27, 2013 23:12:47 GMT -5
I guess the Captain is busy mntech. He is using straight tubes only.
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Post by Liteway on Jan 27, 2013 23:22:52 GMT -5
Oops. Guess I guess I misinformed you. There is a curve in that roll bar.
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Post by captainamerica on Mar 28, 2013 16:43:50 GMT -5
I bought a bender for about $500 out of pocket. during the roll hoop bend process I realized that it only did 120 degree bends and was all around pretty useless so I returned it. So far I have paid a local shop about $60 to do all the bends that I need. Someday I'll get around to buying a better one but for now the cost benefit just isn't there.
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