Messages

$3.079 for 87 octane in Chesapeake these days.

You do great artwork, Matt. I wish I had that talent. It would really help me lay down some stuff I have knocking around in my head.

A 10" blade is a lot more versatile.

From my research, it sounds like FreeCAD has advanced really dramatically over time, so it's probably a better program in some important ways than when you tried it. A good tutorial makes a big difference in trying to teach oneself anything that's complicated. This is the one that helped me start get it figured out: 

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Wood...that's kind of brilliant. I've been working on learning FreeCAD in my spare time. It takes a little effort since I've never done any CAD before, but evidently I'm still capable of learning. I'm finding that it's already changing my way of thinking and visualizing things.

Lol SURE the glittery popcorn is coming back! Believe whatever a Realtor is willing to write down.

You're right, it's Advance Auto rather than Autozone.

Looks like a bankruptcy. https://www.fatmanfab.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooaKPZKvvPYN1knV4xwneVbhLkWm7dO_91FQiO7pkY0MQE7ahJz

Numerous national businesses are reducing operations right now, mostly due to "anticipated challenges" expected in 2025. It's my understanding Autozone is closing 700 stores, but it's happening in a variety of businesses. I've also heard of a number of investment gurus pulling money out of stocks and putting it into bonds...Warren Buffett for one. I'm not saying we're on the edge of a recession, but I'm also not saying I'd be surprised. On that basis I've moved a bigger chunk of my retirement account into bonds than I've had at any point previously. 

My last gas furnace required the thermocouple to be cleaned about once per year. An HVAC guy showed me how to do it by rubbing the surface with a dollar bill. Sufficiently abrasive/absorbent to get the job done, but not too much and it won't contaminate the surface with anything which will be problematic.

Congratulations, Chimp.

Just got back from Christmas in Austin, TX. I think I'm about to the point where I'd retire tomorrow if I could, and live there from now on. I can't, so I won't.

Matt, I don't necessarily see it as having to be that way. These guys are building their own 60's-inspired supercar out of a salvaged Porsche Boxster chassis and Ford V8. The new tools don't have to mean a lack of creativity or eliminating regular folks from the process. It's a personal project of one of the guys using tools which were once only available to manufacturers. They used 3D scanning to establish the hard points in the chassis. They duplicated those hard points by 3D printing them, building a clay model on them, then scanning the result. The 3D scan became the plan for their buck. Since then, it's been old school coach building to the Nth degree. Pure metal shaping.

The original project above isn't duplicating what's come before, it's a Preston Tucker concept which never got off the drawing board. I consider that incredibly cool. The parts are just sections of the bodywork. Once they're formed, a real craftsman still has to cut the formed parts from their surround before blending and joining them to one another. The worker with the practiced eye, torch, hammers, and dollies is still critical to the task...he's just a lot more productive than before. Acknowledging the fact that you have to keep a million dollar machine busy to make the financial model work, those time savings can make those metalwork skills more accessible, not less.

youtube.com/watch?v=0jO1opjgU5A

Great picture, Matt!

Wow, I didn't know machines like that digital sheet former existed. To me it feels like there's an opportunity out there beyond high dollar shops. Lately I've been really intrigued by Send Cut Send. There model is to do rapid turnaround on laser and water jet cutting, bending, dimple dies, flanging, and a bunch of other basic operations to order from patterns sent to them by the customer. Materials include plastics and a variety of metals, and you can price them out in various materials on their web site with the buying the materials in bulk.
youtube.com/watch?v=-yoKXh0jn3A
 

It seems like a great use of time to design parts, send them out to get them cut out accurately, and do something else while you wait for the the components to come back. On the other hand, the parts are a lot cheaper per piece when you order multiples instead of just one. If you can make the same design work in multiple positions in the assembly, use them in multiple builds, find someone who needs the same parts, or remarket them the economy of scale builds up. Or balance the expense against buying metal forming tools that mostly just take up space in the shop. Cost v time, as always.

If you could use the sheet former that way, feeding it digital files and sheetmetal all day long with little downtime, those parts could become a lot more reasonably priced.

I don't think there's any question the setup decision get more trial and error without a full set of corner scales as well as all the measurements and calculations needed to plug into a suspension calculator...and even that just gets you into the ballpark. Even how you drive the car matters. The lever arm length of the sway bar matters. So driving the car has to be part of it, in the real world. Here are my thoughts on it. Your mileage may vary.

• I'd always use just enough shock to keep the suspension from feeling floaty or overextending on rebound. The shocks have to be softened as spring rate is softened.
• Does the car traverse bumps, dips, and drop aways like secondary road bridge approaches feeling like it's level? Using about the same amount of suspension travel on both ends? The spring rates are probably well matched. That doesn't mean both ends can't be over or under-sprung.
• If the car uses an abnormal amount of suspension travel on acceleration or braking, it's under-sprung
• If one end of the car or the other feels like the wheels are trying to skip at bumps in cornering, it's either too much shock or too much spring.
• We're way beyond the stone age of suspension tuning, in which we make a car handle by making the springs too stiff to let the suspension move.