School Kart X-Treme!

[stevek]

cool low buck steering design, nice to see something fresh that wasn't over built by dad in his garage.

 

[THE_SHRUB]

For the bat we used a hack saw, a grinding blade, a cutting blade, and a buffing wheel. None of that fancy plasma stuff lol. Our school is too poor to afford and too stupid to be able to maintain something as complex as a flow jet. But god i wish i had one lol

 

[jr dragster T]

Lol our school has one. And like 3 plasma cutters, Two TIG's Counless arc's and mig's. K I think you get it now.

 

[newrider3]

Rich Canadian schools haha. My shop teacher said he wanted to get a computer controlled plasma table (works like a flow jet) but it was hella expensive. We do have a plasma cutter, really fun tool. I also got a chance to use the TIG welder since my buddies and I finished before the rest of the class, that thing runs some amazing beads.

 

[ed1380]

OMFG my school is pure sh*t compared to those. the "coolest" class we have is computer, and that got cut down to 1 semester, for some stupid bullsh*t family class

 

[THE_SHRUB]

dont feel alone newrider, we have mig welder.... thats it. and technically our shop is a wood shop... so even when we do go to weld we need to make sure no one else is in the shop (not usually a problem tho). We have to bring in our own hand drill... nuff said

 

[Scorch3]

You can comfortably play all year round. Michigan has four seasons.

Too hot
nice weather
too cold
mud pit

As you can see I only accomplish stuff outside a few moths every year. The rest is pent in a chair by the air unit or wood stove, sometimes in mud pit I get the motivation to play some video games.

Nova Scotia is quite similar

too hot for 2 months
nice weather for 3 months (if were lucky)
too cold for 5 months
mud pit for 2 months

 

[THE_SHRUB]

Bad News

Hey guys, I've got some bad news about the go kart being a school project. But first a bit of history...

So for the past 10 years our metal/wood shop has slowly fallen into disrepair. The tech design program at our school has changed from a hands on experience to an autocad based computer class. Nothing seems wrong with this except for one thing.

Over the past few weeks EVERYONE at our school has found out about the project. This includes staff and faculty.

Our success concerning this project has finally brought some attention to our shop class, including its previously noted dehabilitated state.

So for all our effort, days going in at 7 in the morning to work on the kart, skipping classes to work, even working till 8pm.

THEY DECIDED TO CLOSE THE SHOP!

Never have i felt so insulted and guilty of setting an example of what a project should look like. (which by the way no one thought we would complete)

Myself and 4 other friends in our class are now shopless, and have doomed any person who either excels at or simply enjoys working with their hands to an eternity of documentation, autocad, and deskwork.

So much for there being a shortage of skilled workers I WONDER WHY!!

Sorry for the rant, but I became very passionate about this project, and feel i have actually let people down.

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

Drive it home.

 

[newrider3]

That is some bull****. Lodge a complaint with the state school board.

 

[Justin]

Drive it home.

start a petition!

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

They dont need it.

 

[THE_SHRUB]

k so its been a while but fortunately we've managed to work in our shop this past week. the kart is assembled, and all that is left is the brake, which only needs the brake cable attached to the pedal.

 

[BradenM]

Great job mate! Thats come together nicely.

 

[SpyGuy]

. o O (I live in Arizona - we don't know what snow and ice is out here .. )

That's really nice work on the kart. I like the design - looks good and solid.

 

[THE_SHRUB]

oh so close...

So just a quick update. We ended up having to remove the wire brake line and went with a solid rod type approach. It works MUCH better, not to mention its far easier to adjust. Finally, we added a kill switch for the engine which was fashioned out of an old light switch we found in a drawer one day in our shop. Only things left on the to do list are:
1. add an upper support bracket for the break line pivot point.
2. weld down the kill switch bracket and screw to more holes for the switch itself.
3.Maybe add an idle sprocket to adjust the tension of the chain consistant as we didnt really account for that when we drilled the mounting holes for the engine.
3. Test it and have fun!!

overall im pretty pleased with what we've managed to do with a bunch of scrap metal and alot of time in the shop.

 

[rokor]

May I ask how you make the rear axle set-up? As my only part source is Canadian Tire and Princess Auto aswell

 

[THE_SHRUB]

k, so we got the red wheels from princess, then we mounted the 3/4" solid axle to the frame by drilling holes into 2 pieces of rectangular tubing and welded them in place, then we went to home hardware and ordered 4 shaft collars which were used to keep the wheels in place. pretty simple stuff actually.

 

[THE_SHRUB]

Update: finally finished.

Finally, we got around to testing, so we only got to ride it for a total of 5 minutes, ill spare u the details and just say the sprocket wasnt connected to the hub well enough. so we stayed at school till 6 again and we got to try it out. its freaking awesome!!! the sides on the kart keep the inside rly clean, especially considering its the dead of winter here. The brakes actually lock the tire up which is a testamate to the design of them, which is rly just a mix between disc and scrub brake systems. Oh did i mention that its CRAZY fast. all in all im proud of it. too bad the semester ends thrusday so theres no chance of making another one by that time.

 

[THE_SHRUB]

Bumper cam footage

Heres a video of the go kart from the bumper cam we installed today. Its pretty intense

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=cZAUnuSoNtM