The pegboard was cheap and allows air flow, as if air flow was a problem. I wanted to make sure there was enough air flow to cool the electic motors.
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I used a piece of plastic peg board to shield the rider
from
the drive train. The plastic is 1/4" thick and will bend when
carefully heated with a propane torch. The pegboard was cheap and allows air flow, as if air flow was a problem. I wanted to make sure there was enough air flow to cool the electic motors. |
| I used 1/4" plywood for the separator between the rider
and
the engine compartment. An upper and lower piece was used to
facilitate installation. The pieces are screwed into wood
blocks
or the steel tubular frame. |
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This is a view of the firewall from the turret opening.
The rider's seat will rest on the top blue frame member shown
here. This allows the kids to sit and still see out the
turret. After the seat is done so is the rider's compartment. What remains is the engine air intake and then any detailing that I want to do. The tank will soon fall into maintence mode allowing me to focus on my next project! |
| My el-cheepo wire welder from Harbor Freight kicks up a
lot of sputter when I use it, so I thought I'd change it from an AC
power supply to a DC 'straight' polarity (negative electrode) power
supply. Ordered some 40A full wave bridges and a 20000 uF 50V
capacitor to make DC from AC. I used some 10 gauge wire I had from wiring up the new shop. One set of wires for each of two sets of bridges was used, and I scrapped the paint off and used thermal grease on the bridges to allow the panel to act as a heat sink. Although the welder is good for 90A, I used 4 40A bridges to spread the power dissipation and handle current leveling problems. The bridges are $4 each. |
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To improve the duty cycle and help expell the heat from
the bridges, I added a 110 volt fan. All the parts for this
mod were purchased from Mouser Electronics. |
| Here the side panel with the bridges is installed and
the
wiring is complete. I used some wire clamps to attach the
transformer output to the bridges and the DC power to the electrode and
ground cables. The clamps let me change the polarity if I ever get a 'gas' setup installed. |
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I tried it out and was unimpressed with the results.
There was still a fair amount of sputter going on as I ran
some
practice welds. The rectifiers got nice and hot even with the fan. I put a scope on the output to verify DC and the proper polarity, and everything was fine. I was practicing on some rebar. The next time I need to weld up some steel I'll see if I can tell a difference. |
| The wood pillow blocks failed causing some nasty grinding sounds, so I replaced them with some aluminum ones. The blocks are 3/4" thick, 3" wide, and 2" tall. The hole for the bearings are a few thousandths oversize to allow them to self-center; nothing is very precise about this setup. |  |
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The new exhaust is yet another attempt to not roast the
battery. The first two attempts routed the exhaust from the
stock muffer out the bottom. This time I'm using a cheap
replacement muffler and going directly out the back. I welded a 3/4" elbow to a short length of pipe, which was welded to a plate that is bolted to the engine. The muffler screws into the elbow, and has a short length of pipe welded to it. I figure this scheme will reduce the heat in the engine compartment, which is needed given that it will be enclosed soon. |
| I've started working on the remaining body panels. This is the engine cover that will have an air intake installed. Visible is the new tail pipe. |  |
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The front plate has cutouts for the drive gears. I plan to use a piece of rigid dryer tubing for the curved portion below the plate. |