TOPIC:

Dude!

Yo bro!



Ribs break....too narrow for balsa wood.......now it backfires that they are meant to be plastic.
Already noticed design flaws, even if it would be plastic. I shouldnt have planed to do the windows later, i should have planed the ribs for a solid shell and then cut out window areas after the whole body is planked. Since this is only made out of waste material its at least a good way to check my thought errors. Next rib set will be designed differently and definitely cnc cutted in a FabLab, after Lockdown is over. I need to work also on the 3d model to account for the knowledge i gained

Its all a big learning process for me, since i never tried to bring a model out of its virtual existance into the real world.

Completely redesigned the cage. No more bending in the ribs, no more angled parts....only pure vertical and horizontal alignment.
Basically i removed all the mistakes and changed it according to tips i got from all you specialists in your areas. I got a lot of tips over at Scale Builders Guild forum and also Discord, also from some engineers, which helped a lot to understand the basics of every design method i want to use.

I had to get rid of my illusion to have 1 3d model as source to fit it all, every path i want to take needs its own model.

I simplified the 3d model even more to get new outlines, that works much better.

Currently i am working on getting all the interlocking areas defined in the ribs.
The horizontal rib /yellow) above the wheel arches will be the baseline of the cage. Below that the the body begins to bend inwards. Bottom parts will be only sticked into the cage structure, not glued. That way i can remove the cage later without destroying it. Destroying such a cage would be, in my mind, a senseless waste of material and money.

If that works out like i think, car bodies like Jaguar E-Type or Toyota 2000GT should be easily possible too

Awesome

wow, the intersections are definitely the most boring part of this task

That seems like a lot of work to me!

It is, but i hope it will make the cage reusable

I believe the rib layout is finished so far. I cant find any errors anymore. Over next days i will do a short animation of all parts fitting together, that might help me finding errors i am now too blind to find.

animation already helped, will reverse the order of the upper part, so that the cross section slide over the longitudinal ribs

All shapes extruded to material thickness (3+4mm acryl). All shape errors removed like hidden double edges etc. Naming of parts started. Cage so fas is now finished, the only thing left is to arrange them all in the working space for the laser cutter.