Project Binky / Escargot update video

Unfortunately racing has always been a sport for the wealthy.  Looking back into the 50s and early SCCA club racing, guys like Phil Hill  and Dan Gurney would show up driving the new "super cars" of that era.

For a long while I thought the number one rule of racing was "don't chase bad tires".   But then I was told the real #1 rule of racing is, "no matter how much you spend, someone can show up in the paddock spending more."   

Binky might someday get done, but it will never be finished.  Sometimes that is the neat thing about racing.  At some point the green flag drops and you have to perform.  

While I get your point, I didn't mean about winning (since there is none in trackday events). I meant that now it feels more, what, clinical. Buy a fast car, go to the track, drive, go home. Fixing up older cars to do the same, and people were much more friendly and were more likely to come over and talk. At least that was my impression.

I hope the "build" goes on forever.  The number of fabrication tricks and such I've learned (and have used) far outweighs whether I like Binky or not. 

NOHOME said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

World of difference. You are up and running with a 3D printer for what a few cutting tools would cost for your mill. 

 

A metal printer - which I would assume you would need to print a circuit board - is a hell of a lot more expensive than one that just does plastic.  Or a cheap CNC mill, for that matter.

I think the "printed circuits" are going to be an exercise in interesting problem solving and poor results. Much better to design a board and send it off to a fab shop to be properly built than to try to lay down traces directly.

It wouldn't be that hard to use a normal 3D printer to print solder. We're not sintering titanium here, you just need to get the hot end to 200C or so - which is about the same range you use for printing ABS. You can even buy it in "filament" form.

Some schools use a wee CNC router or engraver and just cut the NOT circuit paths out of copper clad PCB material.

Yeah, there are many ways to make a PCB that have a higher likelihood of long-term reliability than laying down solder traces. I have the mask for a PCB my grandfather built 40+ years ago on my desk.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Good to know about the solder.

OTOH, I also remember watching a friend, in 1992-ish, make his own circuit board with a kit from Radio Shack.  You bought a board that was covered with copper, stuck some stuff in the shape of the circuits you wanted to make on top, then dipped it in acid, so the copper dissolved away from everywhere you didn't want a circuit to be.

Ferric chloride is what was used for etching copper circuit boards - at least back when I made my own boards, decades ago. For traces, I successfully used nothing but a Sharpie pen to draw the lines. If the pen was new and the ink thick, it worked just fine. I also used pcb layout tape directly onto the blank copper board material - I wonder if that tape even exists today... dating myself I suppose.

Keith Tanner said:

...It wouldn't be that hard to use a normal 3D printer to print solder...

How are components soldered onto solder traces without the traces melting into nothing?

In reply to kb58 :

I guess we'll have to watch to find out. PCBs are a fully solved problem :)

In reply to Keith Tanner :

They do like to reinvent the wheel.