General Fabrication

I wish, UNR has none of that. The closest thing I have found is the racing club that builds a car each year.

 

Yup and tons of it

 

They do the SAE Baja carts, or the more slick tire mini F1 type cars? or both?

On another note, do they teach any Solidworks classes? Might be interested in signing up if they do. Would love to do some legit 3D CAD

 

Reason I switched out of engineering here at UT, the bookwork was ridiculous and they don't relate it to anything vehicle wise in any way, shape, or form. I know the ins and outs of fabrication from working at a buddies family fab shop and decided I'd rather run a business like that than work for one.

 

They do the SAE carts. I tried entering the club, but they had about 50 people on each part of the build. It was too crowded and poorly run. I took a Solidworks/lego robot class last year that was pretty cool. However, it's an intro to engineering class so it requires pre-requisites to get into. I'm not sure if they offer exclusive 3D CAD courses.

 

Got ya.
Yeah thats similar to how the SAE carts were at OIT when I was there. Tried getting in and working on it but it was pretty dominated by the senior students and therefore didnt care much what I had to say when I had worthwhile argument to some of their decisions. I was really into ATVs back at the time too and all the suspension and drive components were sourced from ATVs on the cart. Eh whatever, I'll build cooler shit on my own. hahaha

 

Yep, that's exactly how I felt.

Anyways, I only have one class tomorrow so I can run by the engineering advising center and look into classes for you. You may also want to look at TMCC. I know they have a machining program, so it would make sense for them to offer CAD courses.

 

Thats a general statement that holds true everywhere. Even when i was in school it was like that.

Even the baja style was ran by the automotive tech side of our school and they didnt really know shit along with it being poorly managed. Just ran whatever car they did the previous year since it worked.

I agree with your last part, just build something cooler on your own, ha. I still want to build my own mini f1 car someday, be a hoot to drive.

 

Same as my plasma table. Not too bad.

 

Yeah If you think about what it can do and how much time it can save its not bad at all. For instance I cut all the coped spacers for 10 sets of sliders from design to cut part in under 10min yesterday that's 60 parts in three different sizes one of them has a angled cope that would of took hours before with the band saw and hole saw notcher. This machine will pay for itself in a few months it just takes up a lot of room it's 29 feet long so for a smaller size shop that could be a lot of wall space!

 

I just need to step up my bending game. I need a larger bender that would be capable of duplicating multiple exact bends. I don't necessarily think I have the need for a CNC bender, but maybe one of the large JD squared benders. I have the model 3 now and its fine, I just need a little more out of it

 

The M54 has been a great bender for us. Identical bends every time

 

We don't have a CNC bender it's just programmable and repeatable RDB-250. The JD squared model 54 would be a good step up from the model 3.

 

Is yours hydro? Granted I don't run a shop but mine being hydro helps duplicate bends pretty darn well.... And you still got a plasma for sale?

 

yes, mine is air / hydro, but I either need to build a better set up with full hydro, or go up to the model 54. I still have my plasma cutter, but I just missed out on a 65 PowerMax that I was going to upgrade to. So until I find either of 45 or 65, I have to hold on to the 30

 

How thick of stuff can ya cut with the 30?

 

On rare occasion when I have to cut quarter inch plate, it doesn't even break a sweat.

 

ill grab a picture from work tomorrow but out table cuts 1 inch like butter

 

Got a few new toys today