Roll bar mock up and more year 9 progress on Plume Power!

Our 2 year 11's Reece and Nathan, have been hard at work fabricating the complicated aluminium roll bar. This has involved some bending and careful notching of 32mm tubing (which I salvaged from the old climbing bars that were changed in the gym some years ago!)

Unequal triangulation is to allow enough room for
the motor to adjust back and forth on its hinge mount

Arrows in permanent pen are alignment marks for the welder

Here you can see how well the tubes are fitted together
this should help when they are TIG welded!

The plan is to re-tape the roll-cage together on a board, using the alignment marks. and then hand the whole jolly lot to our tame TIG welder, so we can just bolt it in when we get it back.

Meanwhile...

Tash and Hannah have started coating the foam nosecone
in silicon sealant, this makes it waterproof and shiny!

And this evening, the year 9's have been very busy with the build of Plume Power....

Gluing and nailing in triangular bracing to reduce flexing in
the stepped in nose section.

Alex starts to frame around the top of the chassis walls

Crikey, it's starting to look like a car!!!