Tape Measure Car

thingiverse

Human: Hi, This is a variation on a Tape Measure Car racer I saw on YouTube and made to give students doing a BTEC Project unit some ideas on how they could design a similar car. The initial vehicle seen used CDs or DVDs as wheels, my original design had only 3 wheels as I wanted to show progression and design development through modifications. The first modification I made was to design new wheels for the rear which I printed and then fitted them with a printed tire from Ninjaflex. When we again tried to run the vehicle it did provide better traction but we had problems with the steering, the vehicle tended to steer to one side and then tip over, although it did travel faster than with the final design. The second modification was to change the front wheel, the same feature was used to hold the steering wheel but modified to hold 2 wheels, this gave a lot better stability and steering control which also resulted in less crashes. Parts Printer using a Makerbot Replicator 2X at Bradford College - UK and the front wheels made from Aluminium or could be printed from the students' own design. The rear axle was turned from Nylon and we stepped this so that it increased the speed as the racer ran the tape out. The rear axle ran in 2 needle bearings approximately 7/16" (12mm) OD and 1/4" (6mm) ID, these can be glued to the body when the rear axle is completed. The Tape measure length needs to be agreed by students if you are to race these so that no unfair advantage is gained from using different tapes i.e. 5M, 7.5M or 10M lengths. Pull out the tape coil and clamp it so that the coil does not rewind, then cut the coil as required, drill a small hole in the tape and attach your string, line, wire as you see fit. Slowly allow the tape measure to pull in the string, once fully re-wound attach the string to the rear axle. Once completed you can race these, challenge students - to make the fastest, the longest travel, lightest, etc. The Bradford College racer managed nearly 7MPH which we video'd and then used software to calculate the speed over a 3 Meter distance. Use two video camera's synchronised (started) at the same time so frame rates are constant, have one camera aimed at the start tape and the second camera aimed at the second tape 3 meters away. We also managed a distance of the full length of the workshop Atrium at college, how far will yours go?. See the attached photo's of the race and calculations. Additional activities then include speed calculations, conversion of speed in metres to MPH, measuring distance travelled or weight of items. Print Settings Printer Brand: MakerBot Printer: MakerBot Replicator 2X Rafts: Yes Supports: Yes Resolution: 0.2mm Infill: 12-15% Notes: The only problem I had was the Chassis and wheels lifting off the build plate on a couple of builds. How I Designed This Designed using Autodesk Inventor R2017 If you want or would like files for this let me know. Overview and Background Get students to think about how they could power a vehicle from simple methods. By using this model, you can get students to develop their own design or work as a team to develop a shared design. Race the vehicles based on your own design criteria or see whose design will go the furthest. Who can build the lightest, fastest? Using other processes, turning students could make their own axle, wheels with different features. Lesson Plan and Activity Start by getting students to research different powered vehicles Students could use balloon power, Mouse trap power, Elastic bands or any other source; they should then be able to decide on how they could build the vehicle. 3D print, woodwork, turning, engineering materials etc. Skills Learned Maths Speed Design Making Project Racing Development Team Work Duration of Lesson 30hrs +