The End.

Hello Everyone!

Over the past several months I have debated over and over again whether or not to continue with this blog.  Not that this process has not had it's positive points along the way or that I have had any bad experience because of my efforts.  Neither has been the case. In a few short weeks the blog would have been running for eight years.  A very long time.  

I have been watching the readership numbers go up and down over these past eight years with amazement over having had so many visitors along the way.  Over a half a million readers from around the world in over 100 countries.  In all this time I have never gotten a disrespectful or nasty comment from anyone about the postings I shared with all of you. That alone is quite an accomplishment in itself so I feel very fortunate in being able to say that.  

I had to go back to the postings just out of curiosity to see how many projects that I worked on over these past eight years.  The best I can figure is that the number comes up to roughly 125 different projects.  That averages out to a little over 15 different projects a year.  Again another nice accomplishment over that amount of time. 

All of this has been quite rewarding for me and I want to thank all of you who have followed along on this journey.   I hope that I have given at least some of you some inspiration, enjoyment, and laughter along the way.  With that being said I wanted all of you to know that this will be the last posting on the blog. I have had a great time and now am moving on to other interests.  It has been a great ride and I wish all of you good luck with your projects.  I hope that you will find as much joy as I have in creating something new in your workshop or have come up with a solution to a problem that has been driving you crazy for some time.  Thanks for all the comments and visits to the blog. All of you have made these past eight years worth every minute of effort in the workshop. Best wishes to all of you.

Sincerely,

Dave Langkamp

The Tinker's Workshop

1/6th Scale 3D Printed 1927 Bugatti Type 35 Model Project Part 6

Back to work once again on the 1/6th scale 1927 Bugatti Type 35 model has produced a pile of parts and a lot of 3D printing to get to this point.  I had to look back on the last post I did about this project.  It was this last May.  Like most projects other things tend to put projects on hold due to other priorities. This has obviously been the case while working on this model. 

This is the finished design that I put together in Fusion 360 software.  This portion of the project has taken me at least 200 hours just to get the design worked out.  Hopefully I have crossed all the "T's" and dotted all the "I's" while working out the design.

Here is a good shot of some of the major parts that have already been 3D printed for the model.  

This is a good look at the floor of the driver's compartment.  On the left of the floor you can see the pedals for the driver.  Then more to the center is the transmission and the floor bracing.  Farther to the right are the seats without the seatback and then finally the bell housing for the rear axle.

A few more views of the frame with the rear axle, seats and floor of the model. 

The big news with this post is the completion of the 3D printing of the boat tail rear of the model.  This part is a very distinctive part of the Bugatti and took 44 hours to 3D print.  The image above shows you what the part looks like right off of the printer before support material was removed. 

Lots and lots of support material needed to be removed from this part.  I had to be careful not to break any of the supports for the frame that are on the inside of this part while removing this pile of support material. It took me an hour an a half to get the job done. 

Here is a closer look at the finished part after the support material had been removed.  I am really happy that the bolts that are on the body line worked out as well as they did.  It's a nice detail that will look good on the finished model. 

The hole on the top of the part is for the fuel filler cap.  I also am pleased that the louvers at the rear of the tail that worked out very well.  Another nice detail that will make the model stand out. 

 The boat tail section of the model is a pretty good sized part being 5 inches tall, 5.5 inches wide and 10 inches long.  With my cell phone sitting next to it gives you a good idea of how big it is.  The largest part in the entire model so I am glad that it turned out as well as it did. 

That's about it for this latest post about the Bugatti model.  In the coming weeks I hope to make more steady progress on the model.  The two rather large parts of the model that will be 3D printed next is the driver's compartment and the front hood.  Both of these are big pieces but I don't think they will take anywhere near as long to print as the boat tail has with this project. 

 A new record for 3D printing for me on this project having to make a part that took 44 hours.  I'll post more as I move forward with this project.  Should be interesting once I start putting everything together to complete this project.  Stay tuned for further developments. 

New Dune Buggy Roof Installation Project

I was not sure if this post was going to get out at all after the events that had taken place over the past few weeks here at the workshop.  Some good events and some not so good.  The best event was the arrival of my new Mini Cooper.  As most of you already know and have read about, I am a Mini Cooper nut to say the least.  I had ordered a new Mini Cooper to replace my orange 2014 Mini and the it finally arrived last weekend after waiting two and a half months. 

 I am thrilled with the new car so that is always a good event. 

 The bad event that happened these past few weeks was a major storm that hit my little town.  Every tree in town either had some storm damage or had complete storm damage where the tree was knocked down and needed to be removed.  Two of my neighbors had this happen. I had more than enough sticks and branches in my yard that took three days to clear.  A pain to say the least.  I also have a tree that needs to be cut down not because of the storm but the fact that it is dyeing.  I was amazed that the 72 mph storm did not knock it down in the process as well.  So I am lucky in that respect anyway.  So that catches you up with things around my neighborhood so let me get to this weeks project.

I thought I was done working on my dune buggy with all the projects that I have done on it so far but with the installation of a new convertible top I was mistaken.  The top fit my dune buggy for the most part and installing it was not a real problem.  The one thing that I was not happy with the new top was how it fit the roll bar and windshield where you climbed into the car. 

You can see from the photos above how the roof does not quite lay right just above the driver and passenger side openings where you climb in with the top on. 

Part of the issue may be with the new installation of windshield clips that the roof snaps on to at the front corners of the roof.  Originally these snaps were designed to be mounted using metal screws that had to be mounted to the windshield frame by drilling holes into the frame itself.  Not something I thought was a good idea from the start. I designed this simple clip that mounts to the windshield frame and has the snap mounted to it so no drilling is required to mount it.  

When I mounted the new bikini convertible top to these clips it may have caused the issue with the roof not laying right on both sides of the car. I went to worn on the problem and came up with a solution that makes the roof even more secure while driving down the road as well as giving the roof line at the entrances of the car a nice look in the process.

I designed a support frame for both sides of the car that would be made out of a custom fit fiberglass panel, fiberglass rods, two 3-D printed end mounts that fit between the rear roll bar and the windshield and four 3-D printed curved fiberglass rod mounts. 

To make the fiberglass curved panels I made simple templates from my computer design of the part using Fusion 360 software.  From the computer design I printed out templates and then traced the shapes I need on to one inch thick Styrofoam. I then cut each curved shape out on my bandsaw.  Along with these parts I took a long pieces of two inch thick Styrofoam that I would use as my base and also cut 1/4 inch thick one inch wide Styrofoam strips to make the inner surface of the form.

I hot glued the curved pieces to the two inch thick base as shown above.  Each of these curved pieces were six inches apart so getting them in place was an easy task.  After the curved pieces for the fiberglass mold had been mounted I then started hot gluing the foam strips on to the curved pieces or ribs.  This would give me the exact shape that I needed to match the roll bar and windshield frame in the car. 

Here is what the form looked like once it had been put together.  I did not have to completely cover the larger ribs as it would not be needed in the car when the fiber glassed part was completed. You can see the twist in the form that was needed for the fiberglass panel that I needed for the project. 

I had covered the Styrofoam form for the driver's side fiberglass panel with clear packaging tape so it was easy to remove once it had cured.  In the photo above you can see how shiny the inside of the fiberglass panel is because of the smooth surface of the tape.  Also in the photo above I had already mounted the end mounts for the panel and installed the fiberglass rods and their respective mounts using fiberglass epoxy resin and micro-balloons.  The resin and micro-balloon mixture makes a perfect filler and bonds parts together easily.  I clamped all the parts in place and let them cure over night.  

The fiberglass assembly had to be duplicated in reverse for the passenger's side of the car as both assemblies are mirror images of one another. I took the Styrofoam form apart and rebuilt it in reverse so that I would get an exact mirrored assembly for the passengers side. 

Here is a good look at the driver's side panel mounted to the dune buggy's roll bar and windshield. I really like the look of the orange fiberglass rods but unfortunately I was not able to figure out how to keep them that way when painting the parts so I opted to paint both panels inside and out in gloss black paint.

Another good thing about adding the fiberglass rods into the assemblies was that now the panels are more solid with very little flexing to it.  It would also take some real effort to break the panels when they are installed on to the dune buggy. 

Here are both panels before painting and after painting had been completed. I do like the nice glossy finish on the panels and the structure when mounted on to the dune buggy looks nice on the inside of the car as well. 

To hold the roof securely to the new panels and get a nicer look in the process I installed Velcro patches to the top lower edge of each panel.

The roof then was pulled tight to match the Velcro that were also installed on the underside of the roof.  I used industrial grade Velcro with a holding force of 10 lbs per patch.  

Before and after front view driver's side.

Before and after rear view passenger's side.

As you can see the roof line is a lot cleaner looking now and will be a safety feature with the Velcro holding everything in place while driving down the road as well.  

To remove the roof now takes only a couple of minutes more because of the new roof panels but it is easily done if I want to go cruising with the top off in the evening when it is cooler out. During the day with the top up help keep the sun from beating down on me too.

I'm not sure if this is the last project for the dune buggy.  I can't think of anything else I want or need to have done at this point but you just never know.  I am sure something else will spring to mind in the coming months.  For now it will be nice to have the option to have sun or no sun if it is to hot.  The look of the new top looks just as good on the dune buggy as without.  Works for me.