Dan's Chariot #8 - Almost ready for a Maiden Voyage!

Man, this artsy fartsy crap sure tears up the time... Made some patterns for the leg pan sides.



Traced 'em on, cut 'em out, and made some edges. Really getting to love the edge forming machine- Being able to roll hems onto curves is great.



It'll sit something like this.



Made the other side too, and here it is sorta sitting in place.



Still need to put a hole in them for bungee cord attachment and I'll do some "racing stripes" like I did on the fenders.

Leg tie down hole and some decorations / stiffener added to the side pieces.



Think it blends with the fender pretty well. Hope I got the lines straight so everything matches!

A trip to the store for longer rivets, and lotsa holes later, its "done".



Going to sit something like this. I like it!



Drilled a few more holes and bolted it down.



Also picked up a few of these bushings at the hardware store and a bunch of nyloc nuts. Re-installed all of the seat belt hangers like this.



Put the seat, axle, wheels, and fenders back on to get an idea of how its shaping up.







I give it 2 thumbs up!



Obviously, it's a little short for me...

The fenders are just sitting there loose. Still trying to decide on the best way to extend them back just a bit more to be totally safe. Have an idea just having a hard time finding the material I want to make it out of. Soon as I get the new axle threaded for the nuts, I'm going to hook it up to a bike and see how it pulls. Maybe strap 3 or 4 50 lb bags of flour to it and see if I can break anything.

Getting closer! We even get a couple days off next week so hopefully more to follow soon. 

First Lego League 2013- Natures Fury! (NOT furry)

So Lego League is underway again.  We've got a decent mix of students this year and for the first time EVER, I have helpers!  The local community center has offered help both financially and with volunteers, and I've got a couple of Walmart employees that come in to do service and help earn me some extra money!  Hoping it'll be a good year.  The table looks awesome, but there are some really difficult missions. 

Really hoping that with the extra money / help this year, along with our school fundraiser, I'll be able to get a few sets of the new Lego Mindstorms robot- the EV3.  Speaking of fundraising... Anyone wanna buy some cookie dough?!

If wishes were fishes...

Something new: How to repair a cracked Ipad!

A couple of months ago my son managed to shatter the screen of my wife's Ipad.  Ouch.  It still worked but as we continued to use it shards of glass would fall out.  Not cool.  Got to checking and it's rather expensive to have someone fix it for you.  The glass, on the other hand, is pretty cheap!  Hey, I can fix anything, right?!

Did some research, bought some parts, and here's what I came up with.

So here's the kit and the broken Ipad. It came with the glass (digitizer), adhesive, and a pack of tools. Tools actually are pretty solid and came in handy, although I did almost all of the removal work with a putty knife.



Got the whole kit and caboodle from Amazon for $32.00 shipped. Here's the seller: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This kit did NOT come with the plastic rim piece or the foam gasket, and I would have used them if it did. I managed to re-use the plastic rim piece even though it broke while taking it out. I think with some practice you could leave the plastic in place and just pop the glass out, but I'm hoping I don't have to find that out.

New digitizer.



Read through the destructions, and watched this vid a time or two...



Bit by bit, working the glass up with the blow dryer. The heat definitely makes a huge difference. The directions said several times to WEAR SAFETY GLASSES, and I'm glad I did- several times bits of glass shattered and shot me in the face.







Woot!



Removed the 4 screws and tipped up the screen.



If you look close at the bottom left hand corner, you can see the cables that need to be unplugged. Watch the video closely, it explains very well how to get them unhooked.

All out!



Time for cleanup. Spent most of my time getting bits of old adhesive and glass slivers out of the body. Took forever. Blew it out with air, picked some more, blew it out again, wiped the screen down, repeat about 50 times.

Re-assembly wasn't to bad. Hook up the digitizer, then hook up the screen.



Flip the screen over and screw it down. Apply adhesive to the back of the glass.



Did a test fit, and like Mr. Bob said, the goofy cable is pretty hard to get to lay down in it's little slot. Finally got it to fit right, so I peeled off the adhesive backs and stuck it down.

Sweet!



It works! Have it sitting under some weights overnight to make sure the sticky stuff sticks. We'll see how well it worked in the morning. $32 bucks and a couple hours of labor is a heck of a lot better than $250!!!

Dan's Chariot #7 - Modifications.

Started on some of the modifications. Took it all apart, took some measurements, and hacked the tongue off:



Took a big chunk out of the middle and tightened up the bend.



I will have to straighten the back end of it just a bit, but the theory is the tongue will plug into the trailer "stinger" style, but 90 degrees to the direction of travel, sorta like this:



Although it will be much shorter and have several gussets. Couldn't find a really tight fit for the square, so the tongue will have a gusset / spacer plate on the top and front where it plugs into the trailer to get a good fit. Holes drilled / pins installed so the tongue can be unplugged and eventually a castor wheel of some sort plugged in so they can use it as a stroller. We'll see where it goes from here!

FINALLY got my wife to stay home from school long enough that I could dedicate some time on this project. Crazy first year teachers... She gets home after 8:00 on average.

Cut the receiver down, drilled some holes, and cut some gussets out.



Start welding!



Tongue installed.



Made it a BUNCH shorter. Hope the curve is big enough to clear the tire!



Set it across two tables, and bounced my wussy 175 lbs up and down pretty good at the joint- it flexes a teensy through the tongue, but the receiver and back half of the trailer is RIGID.



While I was doing some welding, I cut the plastic sheet out and got it warming up to do some bending.







In between all of that, I made a few more brackets.







Whew. Makin progress. 

Boxed in the back of the tongue for some extra strength(?).



Stuck it back together...



The frame as it sits so far.



And with the seat and leg pan kinda sitting in place.



Plan on making some aluminum sides for the leg pan to match the fenders.

Left to do... Hmm. Finish the fenders, make some extensions out the back for them, sides for the leg pan, bolt it on, thread the new axle, get all the misc nuts and bolts I need for the seat belts, TEST IT OUT! and then paint. I think. Probably missing 3 or 4 steps still.

Well, now you're all caught up.  RREEALLLY need to get this thing done.  Lego League is going already, so that eats into a big chunk of my time and it seems like all the "extras" I get to participate in this year just because I'm a teacher are adding up quick.  It WILL be done.  Shall I make a goal? 

End of October.  Or else.

Dan's Chariot #6 - Test fitting.

Dan came down for a test fit!



They are impressed so far, but I'll be making some changes.

We got the leg pan figured out, came up with a plan for fenders, and worked out a way to shorten the tongue up substantially. In addition, they decided to make the tongue detachable from the rest of the trailer for ease of storage and also possibly in the future make it easy to convert to a stroller. Will be adding some blocks to the back also, so we can build a stroller handle for it later if we want to. When I cut the tongue, I'm also going to stand the seat up a little straighter as well.

Started on the fenders one evening after school. Did some measurin, and drew this up.



Traced it on to some aluminum and added room for attaching it to things / strengthening with hems,



and cut 'em out.



I'm really starting to love my edge forming machine. Picked up some new Harbor freight tools that really compliment it as well. Here's one fender with one edge rolled so I can rivet it to the top:



Curled it up pretty badly. No problem- take it over to the shrinker/stretcher and straighten it out!



Way better! Time for a test fit.



The top piece was just a test- it will be longer to match the side cover and I still havent decided if I'm going to do the little rooster tail on the end. The front curve will blend in to the side piece, and the beads in the top will change- have to leave room for the rivets.



I will make a straighter version for the back side, and they will get holes punched so they fit over the axle. Will have to add a bracket and some support to the back side but with the bends its already pretty stout!






Punchin holes the old fashioned way!









Still have to rivet the top on to the other side and make both inside pieces.