Bellevue West High School

Monthly Reports

January
This year’s Bellevue West Power Drive I design team from left to right is Mark Tisinger, Derek Bryant, and Marc Ucman.  We began our designs in the first week of October.  We started by taking measurements and talking about how the frame was going to be built.  We then decided on specific measurements and our fabrication team headed by Jared Velasquez began building our frame. 
                                                
The frame of our car took some time to build because the students had to become proficient at welding.  Since November we have worked on our welds to the point that we could properly assemble the frame.  In January we have been successful with building the roll bar, the swing arm, and the nose to the car.

The nose of the vehicle is built from closed cell foam. We stacked it piece on piece until we had an 18 inch block.  Our design team then helped shape the nose into the aerodynamic shape it is in now.  We had to take into consideration the shape of the frame so that we did not accidentally create more wind resistance.  We then covered it with light weight dry wall mud to strengthen it.  After applying two coats of this mud we hand sanded it and taped it with masking tape.  We had to tape it with masking tape so that when we fiber glassed it the hardener would not go into the foam.       

February
In the month of February the team has become very successful. The class was broken into teams to help speed the process of building this car. 

The team working on the brake pedal was moving with great strides to get the brake assembly done. The head of the team Garrick King made sure that what needed to be done got done and it was done right. Also working with the Garrick was Ryan Scholtz, and Ron Howard. At first the brake pedal was giving the team problems because it was to flimsy and not stiff enough. But with ideas from the class the team inserted a spring in order for the pedal to retract back after it was pressed down.

The team that was working on the seatbelt team consisted of Zach Ring, Richard Evans, Marco Diaz, Erik Luviano, and Mike Allen. This team was working really hard and working together well. The seatbelt has yet to be completed but they are getting fairly close. It will just be a matter of days.

The design /suspension were moving at a real good pace. On this we have Derek Bryant, Marc Ucman, and Mark Tisinger, with the assistance of Jared Velasquez. We got the back suspension done but had to make supports for it so it wouldn’t give so easily. We had Erik make those supports and then had Jared weld them onto the back support. On the front suspension we are currently arranging the jigs and welding them together so we can attach them on the frame.