Determening how things might work

[Ol'fogasaurus]

This is meant just for fun, but it might give one an idea of how questioning how some things work.

How metal works when bending it.

Take a finger (no, not that one as that is insulting) and stick it out straight. Look at how your skin fits up around the bone and muscle. Next bend it and watch how the skin reacts to the bend. The underside of the finger the skin starts to sag, and the joint crease starts working hard. The upper side of the skin starts stretching out to cover the bend.

When bending materials, especially metal a similar thing happens. The underside of the bend starts to compress up while the top of the bend starts to stretch which is why the metal loses a bit of strength. If you see the top of the bend start to turn gray, then you have a bend radius that is too tight as the upper material is starting to fail (tear).

Tubes work a bit differently than flat stock but the stretching of the material on the top of the tube can cause the tube to oval. Thickness to thinness causes ovaling at different rates but it is something to contemplate as ovaling changes things.

How air works around a car et al.

Fill a sink with water then put your hand in it. Next move the hand forward and see the slight bulge as you push the water. Next move the hand back and watch the water curl around and re-fill the now empty area.

It is more obvious if you are in a swimming pool. Walk forward and watch then walk backwards to see the water curl and fill the area up. This is similar to how the air moves over the top of a car even if it is setup to flow the air smoothly. The sides of the car create the same actions here is still going to be the back fill (top and sides) that sometimes can cause a "drag vacuum" at the rear of the car.

Someone said something while I was around, and this jumped back from my memory so I thought I might pass it on.

Very simple isn't it.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

One other thing one has to think about is "Cause and Effect". If you do something, what can be or will be it's effect. It is amazing just what one seemingly little thing can cause and how big the effect can be, and this applies to just about everything... if not everything.

Lee

[SCOTTRODS]

If you want them to listen... whisper.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

If you want them to listen... whisper.

I'm not sure what you mean.

If it is the "cause and effect" thing, that is something that is very important to remember when making or building things.

If not, then I am not sure what you're talking about.

Lee

[SCOTTRODS]

Pretty much on subject, Lee... Just some things that are little (voices in this case) can have a Huge impact. As when one whispers they seem to attract a lot of attention, if you think about it... agreeing with your concept.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Thanks Scott.

It is funny how the English language (and others) have change over the years. I have worked with people from all over the US, England, Europe, Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Canada for examples plus people from different parts of the US, where words in one area can have different meanings or require body and/or facial language to clarify the meaning meant. Sometimes even that did not help.

I was born during early in WWII in a military town and my father worked in a Military establishment. I worked in aircraft that was used all over most of the world and word usage there was very important and controlled so that we all spoke pretty much the same language to make things work together correctly. That is one of the reasons for my "AN" thing (you could get fired for using the verbal symbol) as it really doesn't mean anything although it is still used in areas, used in the car groups (not sure about other areas that could use it) and I've even seen it used in "offshore" advertising.

When MIL-standards were used at work the whole code was needed and that could end up as long as 18 (or more?) digits (digits in this case is spaces for letters, numbers and dashes for example. You spoke the complete standard not just a symbol of the standard, this is so all the facts were there for discussion.

Anyway... enuff and back to having fun.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I had a long talk with the computer about the term "spherical radius" (which I use as that is what is going on when three or more radiuses join) which, apparently is now an old term and not used anymore. The term used doesn't make sense and the advice was to enlarge the radius.

On the floor of a VW Bug there is a spherical radius and the computer said that small radiuses would/could tear which is true, but it also would/could distort the material in the surrounding area.

Where I originally got into "spherical radiuses" was during the redesigning of vacuum-forming attendance boxes back in the 60's (the boxes were where the telephones and other communication things were in and sat on the forward lavatory wall as you entered in on the left side of the airplane ("port side"). The Vinal covered 6000 series of AL sheet was vacuumed formed from sheet but there were limitations to just how deep mostly due to the bend radiuses as the material would/could tear where the three radiuses joined. The lower floor area in the rear seat area where the pan bends up to the tunnel is where the distortion and tearing of the metal would/could happen. The rest of the story is "funny weird" and I got transferred to another plant/airplane model 2 days later.

For the black VWs, I ended up buying 2 sets of replacement floor pans with the first one's material was too thin. The second one fit but I later found out that the outer radius of the pan at this joint was distorted and probably thinned out too much. I did some hammer tapping and got the radiuses fairly straight but not stretched to where the floor is flat as I was afraid of the bends tearing due to stretching.

This area is still giving me fits for the cage design.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Not too long ago I went over to the area where the outer part of the driver's side rear footwell area focusing at the area of the radius was that I carefully worked on to get an inward dimple (bruise) in the radius properly formed back in place. When the reformed metal was refinished, the burse area had shown a slight thinning out of the metal, but the metal now, the metal has settled and the thickness of the metal in that area is back to the rest of the radius.

Interesting as something like that doesn't happen often which makes me wonder of quality of the metal in the thicker floor pans. Even, as I said, the paint is equal in looks down the whole radius including where I was fit checking things for a removable cage mounting to the floor and sides of the pan.

IMG_2707 - Copy.JPG

I still am working on a different shock tower support for the trans mount to protect the shock mount eye. So far things are still clamped in place but there are two tubes (I have to get a 2nd one with the metal of a different thickness so it can be threaded. The fuel tank mount seems to be OK but I have to put the body back on to check things out.

Lee