Team Health & Safety - First Time Builder

[Zenith]

Building is my jam, and I find myself most decidedly on a roll here. Who's hungry?

After getting the outer chassis sorted, I wanted to focus on the inside. I could actually still use the old motor bracket from Mk2 but as I wanted to move the motor forward, I needed to make a new one.

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I decided to experiment. Instead of going to 10mm-block-of-HDPE-paintstakingly-carved-from-a-15mm-sheet route I chose to use two 5mm pieces and add some shockproofing inbetween. I'm curious if this will improve anything, but it seemed to fit quite snug.

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Further improvements are the 'G2-prongs' I added to the baseplate, to further secure the wedge mounts from being ripped off by a freak spinner accident. Yes, famous last words and all that, but you have to give it all your best shot AMIRITE?

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Next up, the top plate. It requires a slight bend because of the shape of the chassis, which requires me to first mark the holes, then bend it, and THEN drill the holes. If you drill the holes beforehand you run the chance of warping them when you heat the HDPE.

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Then time for some more Cardboard Aided Design to get the slot for the lifter cam lined up...

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...and there we are. As you can see though, the lifter is still quite far from flush with the ground. This is due to the lifter cam still being unmodified from Mk2, and with the lifter motor going forward, the cam was now too big.

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Some grinding later, all was well again. The front can be raised 5mm and the lifter blade will still be flush - good stuff then.

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And just to be safe, a check for lifter reach. This is the lovely thing about having a motor-actuated lifter - I just put the cam onto the motor mounted in its bracket and turn the cam as far as it can go. Voila, max reach.

Seems alright to me.

Check back soon for the next installment where I'm going crazy with wedges and stuff!

[Zenith]

After moving house, it's about time I give you lads an update on my insanity.

You see, upon the purchase of our new abode I decreed upon my better half that the garage was not to be touched by an Ikean influence of matching drapes and hipster wall ornaments.

Because it's a garage. Time to DIY my IKEA, and build myself a workshop! The previous owner had used the garage as storage for his contracting business, and before cleaning it out I asked him to leave an old door I'd spotted in the back behind - the way I saw it, the 4cm thick piece of solid wood could serve perfectly as a worksurface for a workbench.

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Upon learning of my plans, he was kind enough to also provide me with a shipping pallet for the substructure. Yesterday, I took it upon myself to take all this discarded wood and give it another life.

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Two afternoons later the door, the shipping pallet and wooden floor offcut caterpillars were transformed into the zombified butterfly that is my new workbench. Being the tall manly-man that I am I wanted this thing to be significantly less ergonomically challenged than my previous improvised workspace (which was a coffee table), so it ended up being quite massive - it's just over 2 metres wide, 83cm deep and just over a metre tall. Because of this I can now also do work standing up, which is a prospect that makes my spine rejoice.

Only need to add a vice now along with a bottle opener... then, time to get building again!