Logan's EPIC Magic Wheelchair Halloween!

I would have done some work today when at the space but I realized I didn’t have a clue. What hours tomorrow and Sunday will someone be there working I’d like to get my hands dirty.

I was in this morning and coated the interior with 2 coats of thinned PVA glue. Was planning on going back tonight or in the morning to paint the inside. I’d rather paint the inside first as a test of the coating, which we can use on the outside as well if it works okay. The test pieces I did look pretty good so far.

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I made a couple rear view mirrors for the truck! Still need foam coat and cleaned up a little.

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Anyone know where the rear bumpers are? I only found 1 of them. There was 1 for each side.

Thanks

Was there discussion an a game plan for the fire truck?

We try to keep our discussions here, so everyone has access to the plan. Of course, our build nights are on Sunday at 6pm, which is also a good time to contribute. Did you have a specific question or suggestion?

Those are awesome. I’ll see if I can swing by and get some mirrored acrylic in the next day or two.

@tom.bloom, would it be easier to carve out a 1 or 2 inch deep, flat depression in the center of each outward-facing tire, and then make up some vacuum-formed wheels, with the bolt heads already molded in? That would let us paint the entire thing black, and then just insert the silver “wheel” into the “tire.” Can you picture what I’m describing? Once we made a single master wheel form, we could replicate 6 of them on the vacuum forming machine.

I wa out of town and missed the build night, has any more foam coat been purchased? I can come in and keep working on that if there is.

Since we’re running up on the time that the news crew wants to do a story on the build, we went ahead and coated the entire truck, inside and out, with a sealant made of PVA glue and water, then shot the entire truck with our first coat of red. There are certainly flaws, but all in all it looks awesome, and where there are major issues, we can do small patches and paint those areas. We’re also getting close to the time that the crew needs to figure out cutting it into sections for transport and assembly. We still have to finish tons of accessories and not only mount them, but carve channels for the wiring, so we might be working on improving the finish of the red in places while the other stuff is being done. Such is life. On the bright side, there’s no real point in a perfect finish underneath where the grille or bumpers or other external accessories are going to go anyway. So if you end up working on it by yourself at some time during the week, I’d say that we just need to keep smoothing the surface and adding coats of paint. We’re using the Gloss Apple Red. There are a couple of cans of other red paint floating around, so look for “Apple” on the can. There are at least 2 and a half cans of that at the makerspace, and I’m planning on picking up more as needed.

We are planning on moving the truck into the gallery area up front for Maker Monday tonight, so it needs to be at least somewhat dry to the touch by around 5 pm. I’m also going to be picking up some black for the tires.

I have to say that the work you guys have done on this truck so far has been fantastic!

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If anyone has any old round automotive gauges (oil pressure, temperature, etc.) that they could part with, we’d like to add a few of them to the diamond plate panels on the sides of the truck. I’ve got a few, but if we don’t come up with any more, I’ll try to make time to swing by a salvage yard to see if I can get a few more donated for the build. The gauges don’t have to work, by the way. Thanks!

I could carve a “hub cap” that we could vacuum form. Also I was thinking those mirrors could get a vacuum formed plastic shell that we paint chrome and then attach directly over the foam mirrors.

We also need to get either some aluminum tape or mirror chrome vinyl to do the trim. It might be easiest to get a couple half round dowel rods to cover with chrome and attach.

We’re still going to have to paint the windows in black also. Maybe moving it into the showroom is premature?

Is KSN still planning to visit tonight? It would be better if they could hold off imho.

We can move it back to work on it after tonight, no problem. I’ve got a roll or two of aluminum tape.

That is what I was thinking would be best. Here is the form I had prepared to be vacuum formed. I can drop it by the space today during lunch. If you would like to do a test on the vacuum former.

image

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Looks great to me. I’ll see if I can pick up some styrene this afternoon for vacuum forming. It seems like maybe we should do thin stuff that’s easy to vacuum, rather than thicker clear stuff. I think it will be less expensive and we’ll end up with more detail.

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Out of curiosity, will that vacuum form well? In my head I am picturing it not getting a good vacuum in the middle area. I’ve never done it before.

If necessary, we can strategically drill some vent holes to allow trapped air to escape.

It was a success of the proof of concept. I am going to make another form that is shallower in the center. I can also make one with the center removed. That way it will pull a vacuum from both sides and form around the lugs better.

I will see if I have pictures later.

I did a test cut on the shop bot to form the wheel portion. It was going well until, my inpatients of watching the bit slowly move along got to me. My laptop battery died, so I started hand editing the ncg program. Then things went bad, and I gave up.

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Can we still use the wood shop to work on the fire truck?

Awesome. Thanks, Tom. Let me know when we’re ready and I’ll come over and we can vacuum-form all six copies.