My father has (a long time ago) built several custom windsurf boards with that method of shaping a light foam "core" and then skinning it with glassfiber or Kevlar embedded in thin epoxy layers. It is even user-repairable, although never as beautiful as before.
Cor van de Water Chief Scientist Proxim Wireless office +1 408 383 7626 Skype: cor_van_de_water XoIP +31 87 784 1130 private: cvandewater.info www.proxim.com This email message (including any attachments) contains confidential and proprietary information of Proxim Wireless Corporation. If you received this message in error, please delete it and notify the sender. Any unauthorized use, disclosure, distribution, or copying of any part of this message is prohibited. -----Original Message----- From: EV [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lee Hart via EV Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2015 9:50 PM To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List Subject: Re: [EVDL] What is needed to build a successful & practical solar vehicle. EVDL Administrator via EV wrote: > This is a big assignment. We're talking about a 900lb 2-passenger (or > is it > 4-passenger?) vehicle that reportedly runs on 55Wh/mi. That's about > 2.5 to > 3 times my ebike's energy use, but the Stella weighs in at 18 times > the bike's mass! It's also rolling on 4 wheels instead of 2. I know > a car is more aerodynamic than a bike, but that's going to require > some mighty skillful tweaking. Here's how I would approach it: First, you need to build it more like an airplane than a car. Join the other EAA (the Experimental Aircraft Association), and learn how they build modern high-performance airplanes. For example, Burt Rutan is a genius at building high performance aircraft with techniques that can easily be done by a hobbyist. He builds structures out of styrafoam, then "skins" it with epoxy and cloth (fiberglass, carbon fiber, or kevlar, depending the strength and flexibility needed in each area). Second, look for a successful model, and copy it. It could be Stella, but it depends on a lot of very expensive parts. The Swiss Twike is another possibility, though it's also expensive. Axel Krause of Brusa with the mini-Evergreen EV also comes to mind. An even older example is Bob McKee's Sundancer EV. Third, KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Follow the lead of people like Bob Rice, Dave Cloud, and Jerry Dycus, and build your first prototype *really* simple and basic, just to get the hang of it. Bolted angle iron, not aircraft welded chrome-moly tubing. Plywood, not carbon fiber. Get it to work first; then set about improving it. -- We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. -- Carl Sagan -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, [email protected] _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
