Sendcutsend order is placed now for the gear drive!
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As a final modification before sending off these files, I decided to modify the mounting plate a bit so that I can pass the kingpin through for faster bushing swap.
Unfortunately there’s no getting around the fact that boardside bushing swaps are going to be way less convinient in the future - I can’t just cut out from the bent sheet metal because I fear the structure would loose too much strength. So the four M10 bolts holding it to the chassis will need to be removed for every boardside bushing swap. Still, the slot in the truck mounting plate will at least save me from removing the truck from the mounting plate all the time for bushing swaps.
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Also designed up some 3D printed BRP hubs with the MBS pattern and captive nuts just so I can potentially print a set to account for the off chance that the metal ones wouldn’t be finished in time - if all goes well they should be. If I’d be running these (probably printed from PETG CF) I’d only dare to run the BRP tires with metal centering rings and definitely wouldn’t try the kart wheel setup.
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I figured out how to make those ugly towers less ugly. The plan was to angle them from the beginning, but I kept getting errors so I progressed with the square towers. But then the file got so large that I can’t modify stuff on the beginning of the timeline reasonably. So I modified it in a separate file. Also making the extra clearance for the drive was a requirement to be able to angle it by any significant amount, and for small angles it didn’t look good.
The full 35 angle still isn’t possible, but at least the tower is at 30 degrees now, and I think it looks much better! Also more clearance for my ankles, especially when braking!
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Woah!! Flat pack. Bent from a single sheet of metal?? Veerrrry neat.
How thick is the sheet? Any concerns of being able to bend it into shape? Might need to make custom metal break tooling for a couple of those interior bends?
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Aint nuthin a 2x4 & a hammer cant handle 
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Looks incredible!
At least most of the places that I’ve dealt with for metal bending may have issues with your towers. I was told by Send Cut Send and OshCut they need a 2:1 Width to Height ratio so it doesn’t hit their press die.
But like @tuckjohn said, you could always have custom tooling made.
Again, amazing work!
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Planning 3mm stainless, but I want to put the whole thing in FEA if I can figure out how that works I did some very basic FEA about an year ago in Ansys but I have quite limited experience on that front. I tried designing around principles so it will be strong, but only time (or FEA) will tell if I did it right or not!
Fortunately sendcutsend seems happy with the tower. Not with the long bends though! Those max out at 120 degrees in their system and I need 147 ideally.
I ran just half of the frame through in their system because the full size exceeds their standard dimensions.
I added a slot to be able to feed through the kingpin for bushing changes, don’t know if it would work for all positions but if it works for some that’s a win already.
Appreciate the compliments guys!
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Oooh! This is chefs kiss ᐠ.ᐟ
So I didn’t get the kick back in their system til after my order was submitted. Only then did they email me to put the kibosh on my joy.
But who knows, maybe I broke some other design rule.
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Is that some bending related vocabulary for this?
You guys definitely seem more experienced in sheet metal work, does this look doable at all bending wise? The 147+57 degree bends
How final this actually is remains to be seen especially with the potential issue of the long bends, but it’s looking great!
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Don’t see any immediate issues with the long bends for manufacturability. I think the hard part is going to be the boxes, but might be doable if they have a removable jaw metal break (which like, I’d be surprised if they didn’t)
If they can only do 120 degrees for you, that’s fine. One a bend like that is started you can bring it the rest of the way by hand/hammer/clamp pretty easily (it’ll stay straight)
The vertical joint under the standing platform, where the sheet metal touches, is that going to be attached at all? If it’s not attached, the deck is going to be substantial weaker(the triangle sections won’t add as much strength as you expect). Also I predict it’ll make an annoying rattling sound
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Sounds good!
The plan is to bolt down the towers by 6x M8 bolts
Furthermore these edges circled by red will be welded shut. And also considering welding the tower down next to the bolt pattern after it’s bolted together tight.
Also I just added these flanges here to what my intuition says would have been the weakest point.
Also going to be welding along the red, green, and indigo lines. Will be tack welding everything then work on the red lines first so hoping that by the time those are done and I get to the visible parts my welds won’t be looking attrocious
Also having the bellypan and the deck bolted to the triangles is going to add a lot of strength as well. My intuition says I am probably good now but I’ll be trying to run some FEA nevertheless.
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And also planning to use 80mm long aluminium standoffs in some of the unused holes, to give the tower itself some extra rigidity.
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Oh hell yeah, nice!!
With it welded together I’ll be surprised if you need a structural deck haha
Might have better luck with rivets. More durable, lower profile, and lighter
Psyched to see this thing built
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I want to countersink all the M6 screws including the binding’s mounting hardware so I’m going 6mm alu on the deck so the head has enough meat around it and 3mm stainless everywhere else.
I think if the structure is designed well it wouldn’t have trouble with a car driving over it, the question though, is it designed well? Only FEA and real world experience will tell for sure hahaha. I just installed Ansys but I’ll definitely need to research more on how to use it well. I had one basic mechanics course at university and that’s it, so I’m not exactly a mechanical engineer 
I’ll look into rivets, never actually used them before
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Very cool project.
I think the top of the tower wouldn’t be necessary since the truck adapter would become part of the structure. You could use the “saved” weight to increase the thickness of the sides.
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The top of the tower is necessary if I want the tower to bend out from the same piece as the base. Besides, if I were to run a higher ride height, as everything from BRP to kart wheels are supported, omitting the top of the tower would have sharp edges there, so I want to keep the top.
Beefing up the sides of the tower by a second layer might not be a bad thing though. I just made these plates for that purpose:
They are designed to neatly fit into the battery cutout cavities in the same cut, resulting in less wasted material.
I’ll cut those little tabs off myself and then bend it on a vice. I added some slits to help with the bending.
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On gotcha. I just saw the part where the tower is going to be bolted down. I’m not sure sendcutsend could make those bends and if they could, I’d be surprised if they line up. (Note, they recommend a parallel surface to reference for bending)
Maybe this type of method would work. I’d check out their other videos on metal bending also, they’re very helpful.
The tower being a separate piece that is bolt on wouldn’t be a bad idea either for initial testing. Could be welded after for additional strength once everything checks out.
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