The New and Improved Base Frame...

While looking at the last version of the balsa wood frame...oh, let me first say, Happy Christmas everyone, hope your holidays treated you well, and the New Year's came without a hitch.  Go figure the world didn't end when the Mayan calendar switched from one to another.  Gee, everytime I switch my calendar from the past year to the new year I always wonder, will this be the end of the world?  Go figure nothing ever happens.

Anyways, as I was mentioning, I was looking over the last frame and noticed a few things were just not right.  First, the 1/4" balsa I used just looked too thick.  The scale was accurate as it would have been 1 1/2" tubing but I just didn't like the thickness, and in the actual car I am still debating 1" tubing or 1 1/2" tubing. tubing. So decided to go with 3/16" balsa sticks to be an in between.  I like the the look better.  

Secondly, I was not happy with the triangulation of the frame so I redid it, with a much wider stance now for the batteries.  I can now fit more banks of car batteries in case I need more.

The last frame I built I did without using the technique of pinning.  This time around I pinned the frame as one of my co-workers is an avid model maker of model airplanes and he suggested it.  It was so much easier to accomplish what I wanted.

So you wonder what pinning is.  Well here it is.

Since I built this all digitally it was easy to print up a scaled top view frame on paper.  I just printed off the base frame first at 1:6 scale.  I then basically just traced over the printout with the balsa wood sticks, cutting the lengths directly on the printout.  To keep the pieces steady and tight against each other I pinned down lengths of scrap balsa against the frame lengths and glued the frame pieces in place.  To make sure everything was square I used a small set square just for the added piece of mind, because if something was not perfectly square I would end up with a bent frame.

For a better explanation here is the link I used.to learn how to pin properly.PINNING TECHNIQUES.

Here is the new frame.  It certainly looks prettier than the last version.

To give a sense of proportion, here is the frame in place with the driving position in rough place.

I think I will continue doing this during my lunch hour at work.  It is definately a better place to do it with more room, less pets, and less distractions.

Till my next post.