Pop Top Suburban.

I thought I had posted this already, but apparently not.  Most of these pics / info is over a year old, and can also be seen here:  http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=801632

Now that its spring break, I'm hoping to get this thing built.  For now, here's the old info for y'all to catch up on.

This idea has been kicking around in the back of my head for a couple of years now. I want a "Poptop" that I can mount to the roof rack of my Suburban. I had a few basic design requirements-

1. Has to be TALL. At least 6 feet on one end. I'll still have to slouch majorly, but I can handle 6 feet.

2. Room for two people.

3. Simple construction, easy to build, no large time commitment.

4. CHEAP.

5. Was hoping that one person would be able to mount / dismount from the roof, but I don't think thats going to be possible unless I have a "hoist" of some sort in my garage... Also a possiblity.

After monkeyin around with this idea forever, Here's what I came up with. Got LOTS of other drawings with a ton more ideas, but here are a few basics to show you the idea.

Havent decided WHERE on the roof its going, but I am planning on putting it as far towards the front for two reasons- I can have a "door" in the floor where the sunroof is, allowing me to get in and out through the sunroof, and it will also leave the back end of the roof rack free for tying other stuff on.



Here you can see a little on how I plan to hold the lid UP. 4 pieces of conduit near the corners- once side much longer than the other. Not 100% on how I'm going to attach them to the lid, but current thinking is I will flatten the upper end of the conduit enough to put the skinny end of a T hinge in it, then weld the two together and bolt the whole thing to the roof.



Sides of the camper will be coming from a ginormous canvas cabin tent I picked up at a yard sale a few years ago. The floor is likely going to be 3/4 CDX, but open to suggestions? Canvas will be stapled to the underside of the floor on the bottom, then a pocket will be sewn all the way around the top of the canvas. Inside of that pocket will be conduit to keep the shape, which will be bolted to the roof.



Lower end of the conduit will have something like pictured, but just a piece of angle iron or aluminum with slots cut in it for the conduit support pole to rest in- several of them to allow for adjusting tension.


Course, all them's ideas are about 2 years old.  I've been doing a lot of doodling and have come up with a lot of other ideas.  Last summer, I scored this.



It was free. Came off of a '70's Ford long box, ironically.. Measurements are a little off for what I want but we'll get there in a bit.



 I got the saw out and started hacking. Jig saw- Not so much.



Skill saw with the blade on backwards- much better!





Here's where it'll be mounted.



A sheet of plywood would sit on both outer racks and have the support of the middle rib all the way down. The roof is definitely strong enough to hold me standing on it with zero flex or dents in the roof, so I'm pretty sure a 3/4 chunk of plywood supported by the 2 roof rack bars and the center ribs will be plenty strong without any cross braces underneath, which will help keep the profile LOW.

Next issue- the roof curves down towards the front of the 'burb. This was going to be a problem because this is where I wanted to be able to stand- there wouldn't have been any support under this section of floor. Problem solved- I just wont stand. The sun roof entrance will be at the very far end of the floor meaning whoever's sleeping up there won't be able to do anything there anyways.



Another idea I've had kickin around for a while is to enclose this area- make some type of wall that hooks to the hatch when its open like this creating a "room" off the back of the 'burb. This is a long ways down the road but you never know. I can *just* stand under this without bonking my head.



Test fitting.







Its way too wide. Going to chop it about 5 inches in from one side, overlap the two pieces, and bolt them back together with copious amounts of silicone in between. Think it'll work?



Hardest part is going to be trimming around the edges to match the contours of the suburban after I get it cut down to the right size...

Chopy chopy.

Here's what I was thinking at first- cut on blue line, overlap, bolt together.



Wasn't going to give me enough room, and I didnt want to chop BOTH side and bolt them together, so I decided to cut the middle. REALLY didnt want to do this cause it seems like a guaranteed leak point, but oh well. We'll see how it works. Markin and measurin.



Chop chop.



Overlaps about 3 inches. Will be bolted & glued together down the center, and will have more support from the conduit frame that holds up the tent wall.



So there you go.  Should be all caught up.  I do have the two halves bolted together, and have scrounged up some extra house wrap scraps to use for the tent walls.  Changed the design for the struts quite a bit and am going out to Home Depot here in a bit to buy parts.  *HOPEFULLY*, I will have more progress to report this week!  Really hoping to be able to get out and use it on the Father-Son campout this year, which is usually in April. 

Pinewood Derby, Year 2!

The results are in!

Had our second pinewood derby this morning!  We kind of forgot about it until a week ago so the car was a little rushed...  Isaac came up with a pretty good design, and then on the way to the shop drew a totally different design on the side of the car.  It turned out pretty nice.















The races this year were great- had some fellow with an AWESOME track setup come in and run the races- the kids loved every minute of it.  Last year, the races were run on a track that was hand built probably 40 years ago, only had two lanes, and one of the lanes was noticeably slower than the other so each race had to be run twice- once in each lane just to be fair.  Kids still had fun on it, but they got a little ansy waiting for their turn.

This years track had all the bells and whistles- instant replay photo finish, time recording, and speed calculations converted to scale speed.  He even gave us a printout after the race of all of the times, which will also be posted up later on his website:  pwderbyracing.com !

















He even won 3rd place!  We had two different groups racing together, I think the other group was quite a bit faster but I'm not going to complain!






The hard part now is going to be keeping him from playing with the car... I think they have "regional" tournament in another few weeks.  He got invited last year, but had already destroyed his car.

Here's a vid of the race.  Love the instant replay!  He won at 176 mph.




After the races were all done, he brought out the "circles of death".



Isaac's made it through the loops both times, and after it was all over the guy used his car as a good design example.  He thought that was pretty cool.

That's all for now, all though I do plan on posting an update on the Cafe project later today or tomorrow.








 

Thoughts on Teaching: Year 4.

Halfway through my 4th year and absolutely loving it. It's always crazy busy- between coaching a Lego robotics team, getting projects organized, maintaining tools in the shop, making sure all of the supplies stocks are adequate, and trying to jump through all of the insane hoops provided by the government and now getting ready to teach an evening community class... It's tiring. That said, again, I'm loving it.

 I feel like I'm finally getting down how to balance classroom management but still maintain a fun environment where kids can work, do their own thing, and have something to show for it. Long ways to go still, but progressing in the right direction.

One of my favorite aspects of teaching so far is all of the things I've taught myself. I started teaching these classes with a fairly basic understanding of several different subjects and almost NONE in some of them. Now I feel very confident in the all of them- I can get pretty fancy in Sketchup, I understand how the Lego robots work and can troubleshoot and program them fairly quickly, sheet metal working is a breeze, my welding has increased leaps and bounds, and I've learned even more about small engines in the process of figuring out how students can screw them up.

 What does that give me? A desire to build. To go further. To continue. I remember Nintendo had a commercial when I was growing up- it showed this cube of letters at the end really quick and I could never figure out what the heck it said... I finally did and I like it.

Seems like I'm at the next level, and I'm looking forward to the challenge. Lots of fun things coming up- talked management into letting me add a 3D printer this year, and its on its way. Can't wait to build that and get it working! Currently teaching a new 8th grade class- where we actually get to weld a LOT and we're building some pretty cool working model air engines. Looking at expanding in the CAD area to a more professional program- Rhino or Solidworks- neither of which I have a clue how to work but would love to figure it out.

There are long days, there are the students that like to do things just to tick you off, but at the end of the day I usually still want to come back the next. If I don't, sticking around for a while tinkering on some new project to show my students usually changes that. There's always some lame politician, some other distraction you have to deal with, always seemingly pointless hoops to jump through. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and gitr done. That reminds me... There's a few things I have to get done.

Sorry to be all rambley, wasn't intending to write a discourse. Anyways, that's the state of affairs in the dorkpunch garage. Keep your stick on the ice.

Peek-a-boo

Don't you just hate it when someone reads over your shoulder?


 

That would be Chester... We adopted him a few months ago.  Found him in my front yard with a broken wing- think he flew into a window.  Tried to bandage it but it healed funny.  He is getting better at flying but he still can't go more than 50 feet unless he's running on adrenaline (for some reason, he is TERRIFIED of brooms).   Hoping to release him in the spring, but he's getting awfully tame.

Still trying to catch back up at school after the holidays.  Making a bit of progress- finally got the junky wire feed welder back together.  Adapted a different "standard" gas diffuser to the torch handle so I can use normal tips and hopefully avoid the last issue I had with it.  Picked up some new shields and it should be ready to go.  Little late for my class, but just in time for the scouts that will be using it tomorrow night.

So I get to teach a "Community Class"  and I'm kind of excited about it.  I really don't know what direction to take it- I would LOVE to do basically an open shop where people could come in and, with a little guidance, use the tools to create things.  I would also be willing to give instruction in different areas that interest people, but I don't have a lot of room for large groups.  We'll see how this first session goes.  Hoping to get about 15 people at a time.  There are a few people interested in welding but my welding booth is pretty small.  Still need to come up with a name for it though... Don't think dorkPunch Garage will work.

In other news: I am SOOO ready for the cold to go away.  Been getting down to around -8 degrees F lately.  Brr.

Grinding Wheat

Not really, but it sure feels like the grinding wheel of life has been busy the last few months. Between school, kids, family, food, work, and all the other responsibilities it seems like there is hardly time to take a breath. I have been meaning to write here more frequently, so now seems like as good a time as any to try it again...

Education has been on my mind a lot recently. As a teacher with a whopping 3 years of experience under my belt, and with a wife who is almost finished with her degree in education, I guess that would be normal. I really feel that Idaho's students are at great risk if Propositions 1, 2, and 3 are passed. What it amounts to for me, is that the grand poo-bah mucky-muck of education (who has never set foot in a classroom as an educator) really doesn't care what educators have done and are doing for their students- nor does he care what we think might help our students succeed.

Enough politics. Can't stand 'em. Becoming and educator was a real eye opener for me- really can't avoid politics when you're a teacher, but that's a different story for another day. How about something more intersting!?

Progress update on a few current projects. Milly the $200 F150 has come a teeensy little ways- got a bit more painting done over the summer and just scored some sweet brand new tires and rims for it. Traded off a different project bike for them, so it's win win for me. One less project to fuss over and more parts for another!

 POJ, the '67 Yamaha Trailmaster Cafe is still dormant. Trying to find a non-existant rubber plug for the oil injection pump. Got rid of a fixxer upper car, made it possible to move the truck and for the first time since we've lived here (really, the first time ever) we can park a car in the garage!

Finished and road the ST1100 all over the place this summer. Did Glacier / Going to the Sun Hwy, and a bunch of other roads too. Managed to put just over 2000 miles on it in under a month, visiting 4 states and 2 provinces. It was a BLAST.

Managed to drag home another project- this one with some sentimental value and a whole lot of history.  Its a '48 Dodge 1 ton pickup- that my great grandpa bought brand new in '48.  Hoping to get it back on the road.

Stayed busy fixing things for people too, that was a much needed blessing. Anxious for next summer- hoping to have more time to work AND play. Hopefully, I can keep the blog going a bit more. Got a few things dealing with education I'd like to get off my chest and hopefully glean some ideas from y'all (yeah, the two people that might check the blog once a month..) Pics from the summer.