SAE mini baja...anyone?

[MoeMag]

Hey, I was just wondering if anyone here was/is involved with the SAE mini baja event.

[RobOpel]

Im on a formula sae team here at gatech and we share a shop with the mini baja guys.

I probably wouldnt be able to answer any questions about it, but I know the guys on our school's team are really cool and seem to have a great time with it.

Rob

[MoeMag]

[Madmarx]

You have me curious..
Can you post a pic of the baja rig?

[MoeMag]

You have me curious..
Can you post a pic of the baja rig?

yeah I will take some pics today.

[MoeMag]

Alright... Ran over to the shop and took some pics with my phone.


This is our car from last year.


Can see the car from the year before last, behind it.


Some shnazzy work we did. Remember we dont get to choose the engine. its given to us.
-We were proud of our back light bracket... then we got rearended...


Oh here I did take a pic of the old one.

more \/ \/ \/

[MoeMag]

But this is the fun part....
We are building a new car this year and this is what we have to play with


All haas CNC's... 2- 3 axis, a 5 Axis , and the fancy CNC lathe. Thats the Haas tech there in the back, he is removing that 5 axis... cause we are getting an even BIGGER one.


Another type of Haas CNC lathe in the machine shop.


Our manual machines... manual lathes are to the right outside of the frame.


And our robotic welder.

--------------
oh yeah...

And for those of you who never visit the "workshop"




Not to mention I'm building a big black powder cannon too.

[Madmarx]

The buggies are sweet!
Do you build it from scratch or are you given the chassis too?

[MoeMag]

The buggies are sweet!
Do you build it from scratch or are you given the chassis too?

We build entirly from scratch.

This first semester another senior capstone project team (which makes up for an entire semesters class load) will be in charge of engineering the new car. They will optimize the frame design using computer modeling and testing (do all the math). Then hand it over to my project team which is our SAE chapter made up of a mix of manufacturing, aerospace mechanical (me), automotive mechanical, and electrical engineers where we will actually build the car from the design model, do the testing, and everything to get it to the race in May.

But by the fun part will be modifying the old car this first semester... cause that will be completely up to my team how we go about changing it.

We machine most of our own parts on the mills. all the mounts for the diffrent parts, the suspension components (except the Fox shocks), and we are even talking about making a custom transmission for it this year instead of the polaris quad trans. But thats up to the first team to design and build if they decide to do it.

[RobOpel]

ASU's formula cars are at a different campus from my baja team so that’s an entirely different world for me.

How fast do the formula cars go? Our baja's are limited to a unmodified 10hp... So we work hard on the suspension and transmission. Its not fast but we do about 35-40 over really nasty rocky river bed that would tear a jeep a new one.


Hey you have any good sponsors? I'm the Treasurer of our SAE club and I am looking for anything I can get.
We already have GM, CAT, Lincoln Electric, Miller, Haas, NOS, and Polaris… not to mention private donations. ASU is really cheap toward us, we barely made it last year.

I think last year's car is limited to about 110 or 120 mph by the gearing, but it never sees it. Its geared mainly for acceleration, cause we do autocross. Itll do 0-60 in about 3.3-3.5 sec.

Our big ones are GM, Ford, and Schlumberger. Cummins sponsors our shop, and I think are concerned more with offroad. We get a good deal of money from student government and the school, but I think thats because we and offroad are the most visible ME department organizations and pretty much do our best to make the school look good, and our teams have done a pretty good job of that in the past.

Although, you seem to have some pretty nice machines there, ours leave a little to be desired, the only thing we have that could be considered cnc is like a 2 axis mill with a really old gcode setup. If I remember right, our machine shop at my co-op job used a haas and it was really nice.

Rob

[rkjunior303]

Not to mention I'm building a big black powder cannon too.

BUT IT"S NOT TO AGD TOLERANCES!!!!ONEONE!!!!

[MoeMag]

BUT IT"S NOT TO AGD TOLERANCES!!!!ONEONE!!!!

? Maybe not... but they are drawn from the only set of AGD prints on the web.
Whats wrong with it?

[Pneumagger]

I'm involved in baja here at Case... but not this year as i graduate in December.
Best of luck to you... cause you'll need it against Case and Akron