Week 4: Making Progress

Hi all,

Another week in the Sim Building working on Baja. A sizable amount of progress was made on the car this week, I would say, if only for the lull in the clerical work that followed the successful completion of the cost reports. I met a couple new faces as well, which surprised me a great deal considering that I've worked with nearly everyone in the club on some occasion and thought that I had seen the entire roster of Baja members just by attending the weekly general club meeting (and the leads meeting, which Nick (the club president) graciously lets us sit in on).

When I came in Tuesday, March 2, Nick and Coleman were still busy getting the cost report submitted, so I spent some time with a few members here and there that needed a hand with their individual contributions to the car. Coleman, when he had reached a hiatus in his personal work, gave us a mock-up for a hub cap and told us to fabricate x4 of them with the manual. This was the first time I had just been given a mock-up and directed to produce a physical copy from the paper description; all times prior I had been given comprehensive verbal instructions and given the correct tool to mount onto the machine. Later, the brakes lead instructed us to mill a part for the brake spatula. It was very satisfying seeing the parts we made welded into a cohesive unit. Early in the evening, when the garage was mostly empty, I observed the eCVT testing, which compromised mounting a GoPro to the chassis aimed at the transmission, and then driving it on the road to obtain footage of the eCVT working. Very cool.

Thursday, the other interns and I spent the whole day in the manual lab drilling holes in a brake component that needed to be bored precisely down the middle and at a 45 degree angle. The work required a lot of setup and double-checking, and took up a lot of time. So much so, in fact, that we were forced to miss the weekly Baja club meeting.

Also, I got whiff of a rumor that this year's Baja team was making a website to add formality to the club in the eyes of the sponsors, university, and other teams, and that they were looking for an intern to help out. As this is right up my alley, I hope that this is something I can become involved in.


That's all, folks.
Max