Quote:
Originally Posted by JVN
Looks good!
Are those side "pontoons" each one large piece? If so, the sheet-metal bending may be touch to accomplish. It is tricky to get a die into such a tall "U" section. If these do get bent, you may find it is a struggle keep bearing holes aligned axially between the inside/outside of these U's.
The belly pan lightening pattern isn't very efficient. Is this being laser cut? Turret punched? You can potentially save a lot more weight out of it -- either by moving to a more "traditional" truss pattern, or just adding additional holes and/or smaller holes within your current pattern.
I'm always a big fan of the front/back angles.
How tall is the frame? Depending on wheel/gearbox config, it looks like you could tighten it up a bit.
Good start -- keep iterating! Each one will get better.
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This is my concern also. How tall are the pontoons on each side? could you use 2" x 1" or 3" x 1" tubing instead of sheet metal. The bearing holes on both sides could be cut in one operation and it should be relatively easy to get them to line up. Depending on the wall thickness of the tubing you choose, you would end up with a similar weight to your current design.
The short vertical surface at each end of the belly pan may be difficult to make, depending on the sheet metal brake available to you. The design with both ends bent up means that the belly pan and the pontoons must be made to match very closely or the parts will not fit. It may be better to make the two ends as separate (identical) pieces as Chris has already suggested. The end pieces can be riveted onto the flat bottom piece. You may want to manufacture the parts so that there are only holes on the ends or on the flat middle part then match drill and rivet so that it all self-adjusts for the real-world manufacturing tolerances.
As most of the other people answering you have said, you need to get know what your sheet metal supplier is capable of and design around that. The Mechanical Designers where I work do this as a matter of course.