Things I love about Formula SAE

[Mikey Antonakakis]

-finding metal in my clothes
-finding metal in my hair
-finding metal in my skin
-all of the above, but for fiberglass, bondo, etc
-the nice farmers tan I managed to get from spending so much time in our shop, four floors underground
-soap with pumice (and acetone/gasoline for those tough stains)
-the way I smell
-the fact that my girlfriend is still putting up with me (nevermind, I now second whoever's signature that says "SAE: when you just can't get rid of a girlfriend)
-getting to the shop in the morning... and leaving in the morning
-not knowing what day it is
-my grades
-the lung cancer I probably already have
-the girls (oh wait....)
-the good friends I've made, and will have for the rest of my life

Feel free to add to the list

[Hector]

-Listening to senior members say "You don't even know. Back when I was a freshman..."
-Telling freshmen "You don't even know. Back when I was a freshman..."
-Skipping class tomorrow to test on a karting track
-The blank stares I get when I tell people that I'm on the school race team. "We have a race team?"
-People asking if I'm on the go-kart team.
-The people that come in our shop and ask if we'll fix their car, truck, motorcycle, scooter, moped, bicycle, skateboard, rollerblades, lawnmower, weedwhacker, ATM, jet turbine, computer, and a few more I can't think of. And all of those have happened at least once.

[DanVaan]

- The weird looks i get from people when i walk from the machine shop to our office with random parts. (4 tires around each arm, half-welded exhaust, uprights, a-arms, etc.)

[kasaba]

listening to "im on a boat" 4 million times a day

[Discretely elite]

-Buying oil from Meijer (24 hour dept store) at 2am
-Making a Jinga game out of the overflowing trash cans
-Falling asleep on the creeper while under the car

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by kasaba:
listening to "im on a boat" 4 million times a day
Some things are universal

I got my swim trunks
And my flippy floppies

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Discretely elite:
-Falling asleep on the creeper while under the car

Our creeper is the floor lol

[Drew Price]

Originally posted by Mikey Antonakakis:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Discretely elite:
-Falling asleep on the creeper while under the car

Our creeper is the floor lol </div></BLOCKQUOTE>



Our creeper is a junior who is named Kyle.



Best,
Drew

[oz_olly]

I got a nautical themed pashmina afghan...

-I love never being satisfied with a design and just going damn it that will have to do.
-Brake cleaner, they should sell it as an acne treatment.
-Picking up hot steel with holey welding gloves and burning your fingers.
-Seeing the crazy things newbies do and going wtf what were you thinking (having done similar things when I was a newbie).

Cheers

Olly

ACME Racing
UNSW@ADFA

[Moke]

If you're on the shore, then you're sure not me.

- Having mates who graduated years ahead of me with A's ringing and asking my help for their jobs.
- Looking at our first car and going "shit it still runs"
- Not going to class, get assignments after they are due, busting a all nighter and getting over 80%
- Falling asleep: On the chassis table, on the ground next the car, leaning on the lathe tool post, on the toilet, at the traffic lights, while driving, welding, etc.
- Having my mail redirected to the workshop.
- +1 on the friends

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Drew Price:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mikey Antonakakis:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Discretely elite:
-Falling asleep on the creeper while under the car

Our creeper is the floor lol </div></BLOCKQUOTE>



Our creeper is a junior who is named Kyle.



Best,
Drew </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh in that case our creeper is our president, Ryan


I [really like] a mermaiiiiiiiiid

[Mikey Antonakakis]

-megasquirt
-autotune
-T-Pain

[jaca]

-ungineering
-that healthy welding tan
-that's what she said jokes
-getting pissed when the first thing people ask is 'what kind of mileage does it get'
-learning how to build pretty much anything
-getting epoxied to things
-questionable use of the mappgas torch

[overdrive535]

Having to machine the fuel rail twice

Having the fuel rail warp from welding heat twice
(bastardized aluminum)

Living with your sister because school is out and you're still machining

Metal Chips in your beard

60/40 Rosin Core Solder

South Bend Lathes that need to be rebuilt

Re-Loading the OS on the Ez-Path
(I spent two weeks tracking down a 15 year old keyboard so I could hit a Y key!)

Learning you are allergic to raw carbon fiber after hauling the seat home

Kum and Go 200 oz Mugs

Moving shops in the middle of fabrication

EDIT:
The weird crap that happens after hour twenty
(When a full grown man who now works on Nuclear Reactor design runs around telling people that they kicked his dog in an Indian accent, that cannot happen any other place)

[flavorPacket]

-sex while smelling like lathe coolant
-late night slushie runs where everyone drives their own car so we essentially have a race
-impersonating Claude while doing QC
-asking freshmen to touch things that have just been welded
-actually touching it when I was a freshman
-being excited to leave the shop at 1:45 so we can make last call at the bar in shop clothes

[Mark TMV]

- starting a team with $250 CAD, no shop, a few mates and a ton of enthusiam
- seeing most of the mates disappear as their enthusiasm dies
- building a car with just four people
- breaking another cutter due to total lack of machining skills
- making fun of "juniors" for breaking another cutter due to total lack of machining skills
- fixing juniors' fudge-ups
- sleeping in a Penske rental truck at Michigan with six other dudes (because we're broke)
- the smell inside the Penske truck after three days of competition

[JamesWolak]

Originally posted by Mikey Antonakakis:

-not knowing what day it is
^So true


FlavorPacket you are very sick. Mixing formula and sex is this most disgusting thing i can imagine. Specially when you smell like machining coolant. Makes me gag just thinking about it.



My formula favs:

That we play the Daft Punk station on pandora 20/24 hrs a day.

That i can open any door in the school with a Qdoba card or a piece of sheet metal.

That in the last month we have gone through more oil then E-85.

Talking in a Borat voice non stop. Even in serious conversation.

Bitching non stop about CoG, weight, and yaw. Even though i am a powertrain guy.

Putting every failed electrical component in the microwave and claiming "its going to fix it"

[Auerbach]

Holy hell, being an alum, this thread brought a tear to my eye.

-being asked 'how fast does it go?' 1.2 million times
-'I slept with your sister' jokes (usally a joke)
-balsa wood airplane+gas+match = poor man's fireworks
-justifying a comfortable seat with the reason that I will at some time sleep in it
-Competing with team mates for who could pick up a girl at a bar using only 'I build racecars' as an opening line
-Always smelling like machining oil

My friends still call the roadster I'm building a "go-kart" and I still want to punch them in the face.

[Buckingham]

-being asked if we've ever taken it on an oval

-volunteering to sit in the chassis during the 3am alignment for driving the next day because it will probably be the only sleep I get all night

[Brua82]

-Falling asleep in the back seat of your car at 4:00 A.M. then waking up at 6:30 to load the trailer you just bought and leave for California driving all the way through strait, cuz your car still wasn't running.

[RacingManiac]

Just adding to the list...

-saying "see you tomorrow" to the regular classmate coming to school in the morning after an allnighter

-hauling 400+lb of metal/jig part/supplies in the back of a 4 cylinder Camry

-tailgating the rental Ryder Truck to get the best possible gas mileage...and getting pull over for it...

-beating the grad students to the student machine shop and claiming all the machines.

-getting 3am slurpie at the corner 7-11 in the spring.

-getting 3am slurpie at the corner 7-11 in the winter.

-the 2nd wind after the slurpie, and the crash 2 hrs later...

-the all night daft punk when you are in a state of trance...

-wet weather testing(not)

-finding the most awkward position and places to fall asleep in....

[Pennyman]

A lot of these are weirdly universal...

-how many times I've heard "those rod ends look too small"

-getting the car running at 4am with 3 guys, one of whom is in charge of the fire extinguisher

-breaking all the bandsaw blades and being tempted to use the mill to cut off the material needed

[Beaudry]

-Carbon fiber work in a hotel parking lot at 3AM
-non-stop noise complaints from the old lady across the street (even when it isn't us)
-exploding dyno chains
-having the LAPD called on you and getting kicked out of your hotel after failing endurance for the 5th year in a row
-blowing you nose and having more carbon than snot come out
-"my skyline is faster"
-burning a hole in crotch of jeans with grinder sparks

Marcus

[RacingManiac]

one more..
-getting ready to fire the car in the shop at 11pm and still trying to figure out why it doesn't start at 5 am....

[Brian Barnhill]

Originally posted by Auerbach:
Holy hell, being an alum, this thread brought a tear to my eye.

My friends still call the roadster I'm building a "go-kart" and I still want to punch them in the face.

+1! I personally own one of the cars I built during my time... all my friends call it my go-cart, at least one of them has been assulted for it...

- +1 to all the stupid questions (how fast, is it street legal, etc...)
- Pulling into a gas station to get a red bull so you can finish driving home after an all nighter to pick up parts, only to fall asleep in the driver seat, with the car off, but key still on and drain your battery.
- Getting a call from 1/2 to 1 mile away from a friend asking if I was just running the car, only to restart the car from the shop and confirm that was indeed the noise he heard
- +1 to the friends
- +1 to Carbon fiber/bondo/random material when you blow your nose
- Getting calls from customer or calling suppliers for the family business, to find a FSAE alum from another school, and talking about all these same memories
- Graduating, and still spending all your time in a garage working on an FSAE car
- Parking tickets for parking in the "United Way Only" parking behind the shop at 3am

[mumbles]

-Walking across campus and into a lecture with safety glasses still on.

[jaca]

-forgetting you have a welding helmet on, flipped up, while going to get food

[nabjab]

+1 to pandora's Daft punk station

Taking advantage of DQ's snow special on blizzards and maxing out the order

Lifting the car over the 1 inch bump entering the shop EVERYTIME!

Driving the car out of the shop... pushing it back.

3.5 hours blowing off the school parking lot to reach 1.2 Gs of lateral acceleration.

Saying good morning to professors walk in to school only because you've been there all night.

On a Boat, dick in a box, chocolate rain, cookin by the book, numa numa, Boats and Hoes, Powerthirst, Wolford Brimley and many many more

[D Collins Jr]

Yeah, all-nighters are fun, and failing class, and the idiots who claim that they could beat you in a firebird/camaro/skyline, etc.

But I've got to second Brian's. I went to the local racing parts retailer at 8 AM, almost falling asleep on the highway (having been up all night). Upon finding they don't open until 9, I waited in my truck. Sometime around 10:30, the owner woke me up because he was concerned someone had died in the parking lot.
And:
-Being on a first name basis with the Saturday morning gas station clerk, aka coffee vendor
-FSAE West
-For that matter, any needless trip halfway across the country
-The SCCA crowd
-Pissing off sponsors, school administrators, etc.
-Booze

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Beaudry:
-Carbon fiber work in a hotel parking lot at 3AM
-blowing you nose and having more carbon than snot come out
-burning a hole in crotch of jeans with grinder sparks

Marcus

-we rebuilt our rims (including some really nasty-ass sealant) in the hotel BATHROOM, so we win...
-we don't use carbon, so I have no idea what the black stuff is that comes out of my nose all the time now
-mig slag for the loss (my poor balls)

[Drew Price]

-we have used more volume of post-it notes than gasoline
-extreme excitement when the Burger King moved breakfast to 5am from 6am, so I could get breakfast and be back to the shop before the sun came up (depressing)
-having more solid models on your USB drive than girly pictures
-knowing which grad student to screw (or insinuate that one of your lady friends whill screw) to get access to the research labs with real CNC machines, with enclosures, and tool changers, and ...... well in our case, 84kb of onboard memory ..... but that's not the point!
-being the only person in a 300 level machine elements design class who already knew the difference between tapered roller, deep groove, and angular contact ball bearings (and where and when to use each)
-not being afraid to crank up the feed override knob --- until the first time your facing mill throws your part across the room ---- then you're the only one afraid
-having to explain heat treatment processes to PhD candidates (and why the laser cutter provides you with annealed AL tensile test dogbones, rather than T6 ones
-more freshmen in the shop know your name than know the shop technicians' names
-taking liberal arts electives, going to lecture twice, not buying the book, getting a B-, and your non-engineer friends still get mad when you tell them their degree is not 10% as difficult as yours is
-our pandora account alternates 10/24hrs on the ABBA station (me) and 10/24hrs on Daft Punk (engine lead)
-the welding room Pandora account always plays ABBA (me) or 'Pirates of the Caribbean' (freshman who is double majoring in theatre)
-hoarding all the 'Loctite' brand products in the whole shop, because no-one else realizes how much each drop costs
-the feeling of overwhelming pride when a prof tells you how valuable he thinks the FSAE team is to both the department, and to your education --- ....but that he's still giving you a C-
-being the only person on your streetcar forum concerned with things like corner weights, YMOI effects of battery relocation, and who is unfazed by mufflers being too loud, interior panels being too rattly, or the car being low enough to plane speed bumps right off the road
-only person on your streetcar forum who doesn't try to cram tires 30mm too wide, and 4 section widths too small onto the stock wheels --- specifically because you saw how much better the footprint of the Goodyear 2692's was on a 7.5" rim, than on a 6.5" rim
-being the stickler suspension guy on your team, but not having enough cash to replace the tires on your street car that aren't just worn down, they're showing cords



-being able to prove by doing, rather than prove by saying



Best,
Drew

[Drew Price]

One more, because this one needs to go in it's own post:



- The exhilliration of showing up at comp and getting into the can-do, I-will-do-whatever-it-takes-to-help-you-out attitude, along with the 1,000 other college students who are the only people who understand what it took to get there, who are right there alongside you.



All of you out there are some of my favorite people, my team-mates, your team-mates, etc., you are what makes the competition what it is. The cars are just periphery. (OK, it's really all about the cars, but the people are a close second).



Best,
Drew

[Dave K]

-Clearing snow and gravel from the parking lot to test in may

-Watching guys sand the body mold in the trailer during a snowstorm in May

-Claiming the ME computer labs as the FSAE office

-Seriously contemplating building bed lofts in the ME computer labs

[kapps]

Originally posted by mumbles:
-Walking across campus and into a lecture with safety glasses still on.

Definitely been there done that. The only better one is doing it with yellow one's on http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif . We get free safety glasses from Kimberly Clark so most of the team uses the tinted ones as their everyday sunglasses anyway.

I'd also like to add to the "finding metal in my..." I don't know how many times I have to take my shoes off in one day at the shop because the pain of aluminum shavings is too great. I've had one shoot up off a 1.5" endmill running 3k rpm at 60 ipm and get stuck right in the side of my lip. Looked like I had a cold sore the next couple days. I have aluminum shavings embedded in my shoes. You can see the path that I walk into my room by looking for shiny aluminum on the ground. Turning around, I can easily see a dozen of said shavings. They are in my car. I even had one make its way to under my desk at work. I think the cleaning crew finally got it a couple weeks later.

[MalcolmG]

- Sleeping on a broken couch in the trailer for nights on end because you keep getting in trouble for sleeping in the workshop
- Being up until 2-4am with 2 other team members getting the car ready to go testing, sleeping in the trailer, then getting up at 7-9am and driving for a hour to the test track, breaking something after running for 10 minutes and coming back to repeat it all
- Setting the alarm on your phone when you got to bed (in the trailer) and having it say "3 hours and 39 minutes until alarm"
- Having competitions as to who can attend the fewest lectures and do the least coursework and still pass the class
- Driving to the 24 hour supermarket in a VW polo with 6 guys in it, somehow spending over an hour buying lollies and energy drinks, being idiots, and deciding which toys to get
- Dispersing children's plastic tool kits through the workshop tool box
- Waking up in the morning and automatically driving to the workshop, every day
- Having 10 times more "dirty/working on car clothes" than "going into public" clothes
- Not being able to remember what you used to spend your life doing before FSAE
- Consuming 3 or 4 times the daily recommended intake of energy drinks every day for 6 months
- Going to comp, meeting lots of awesome dudes who have been in exactly the same boat, then getting really f**king drunk with them at the afterparty and causing all kinds of chaos

[Jersey Tom]

<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Cooking Totino's pizzas late as hell in a heat treating oven. Pre-heats quick.
<LI>People not knowing if I smelled like the shop, or if the shop smelled like me
<LI>Working 8pm-8am on end-of-semester design report, sustaining yourself on a total of 72 oz of energy drinks, feeling like jittery sickly death in the morning, then getting a call for that phone interview you forgot about
<LI>"Oh hey mom. Yea, I'm in the shop again. Nah nothin new, bye."
<LI>Using brake cleaner to clean everything. But it still will not get that caked-in grime off your hands.
<LI>Heating up chicken and fries with a bent sheet of aluminum and blowtorch
<LI>Taking a leak at 2am, very awkwardly walking by the hobo that snuck in the EngCenter, took a shower and is drying himself with paper towels
<LI>The "shop" welding gloves that were brand new a week ago and are now shriveled 3 sizes smaller and full of holes
<LI>Fiberglass layup using MEK, not MEK-P as a catalyst. Wondering days later why it wasn't setting up.
<LI>First time at the bars in Windsor when you're 20, getting blackout drunk, sick, unfathomably hungover, then riding 24 hrs straight back to Colorado starting at 8am
<LI>Life size cutouts of David Hasselhoff and Chuck Norris. Just because.
[/list]

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>not knowing what day it is
<LI>my grades
<LI>the lung cancer I probably already have
<LI>the good friends I've made, and will have for the rest of my life
<LI>never being satisfied with a design and just going damn it that will have to do.
<LI>sex while smelling like lathe coolant
<LI>being excited to leave the shop at 1:45 so we can make last call at the bar in shop clothes
<LI>Talking in a Borat voice non stop.
<LI>the all night daft punk when you are in a state of trance...
<LI>getting the car running at 4am with 3 guys, one of whom is in charge of the fire extinguisher[/list]

+100

[JeffreyH]

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI> Turning up to the workshop and finding that yet another use for DeWalt cordless drills has been invented. I think we're up to at least 20 different applications other than drilling/screwing things in.
<LI> Workshop shenanigans: Watching as the team leader is tied to a hook on the floor... or a new guy (at the time) is attacked by a roll of duct tape.
<LI> Melting frustratingly small soldered plugs repeatedly while trying to finish the wiring harness.
<LI> The ludicrous amount of flak that flies around the workshop while working on anything at all really.
<LI> Second the friends.
[/list]

[kapps]

- Cooking hot dogs, hamburgers, and anything else we can get our hands on over the exhaust of the propane powered casting furnace while waiting for the aluminum inside to melt.

- We have a little belt sander that has the amazing ability to build up some serious static electricity. A big chunk of aluminum is apparently a very good capacitor. You can go from the sander over to one of the mills and get a 1/4" spark. It works the same way when you touch it to a person or a person's ear http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif .

- Hanging out in the engineering building with all your SAE buddies around noon as there is no way the main lecture hall is being used for an engineering class. Works well with my previous post about the sunglasses http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif .

- Going back to my room at a decent hour and decide that I have some time to do some Solid-working. Then the next thing I notice, it's not such a decent hour anymore but I have to finish the part http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_mad.gif

-Worst decision ever...loading CAMWorks on my personal computer so I have access at any time.

[Beaudry]

Forgot two important ones:

-cooking supper on a portable barbecue in a fume hood at 3am
-being responsible for adding at least 2 rules to the rule book every year since 2006

Marcus Beaudry
Project Leader
University of Alberta

[Scalesy]

-Using a skilsaw as a table saw, clamped upside down in a vice with the guards jammed open.

-Being questioned every day why there is so much play in the steering even though there are no spacers installed yet.

-Trying to explain to a cop at a DUI checkpoint at midnight on a Friday night, that I was working on a race car, not out drinking.

-Compliments from machinists, such as "you are getting fat" and "if you have the time to redo it, I would"

-Epoxying the epoxy to the table

-Cutting out pieces of foam to put in your boots after a solid 18 hour haul.

-Feeling like you are having an affair because you have 2 advisors that don't get along.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

-that I can hardly read this screen right now because my eyes burn from the exhaust smoke in our poorly (read:not) ventilated parking garage while trying out Autotune like t-pain

[PBR-keith]

This is the best thread this forum has seen in a long time.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Scalesy:

-Trying to explain to a cop at a DUI checkpoint at midnight on a Friday night, that I was working on a race car, not out drinking.

[QUOTE]

-explaining to a cop at a DUI checkpoint that the shirts u and a buddy are wearing are a racing teams shirt and you were at a car show, after have a couple and on your way to a party. meanwhile he makes u blow and good thing you didnt have much.
-marcus, what about losing a wheel on the way home from cali last year,
-flying to cali after the teams 33 hour drive, asking what work we should be getting done and then being bitched at b/c they just drove 33 hours.
-waking up on the couch in the student council office to the janitor at 7:00am b/c you just feel asleep there an hour ealier
-the womens bathroom becomes the sae bathroom (b/c is is closer) after 5:30 b/c we all know that there is no women in the building.
-late nights/early
-so many more


-some of the best people and times of my life


Keith
Polar Bear Racing

[DART-CG]

- Builiding rifles with pneumatic cleaner to regain creativity in desperate moments
- Accelerating-old-bearings-with-pneumatic-cleaner-and-see-how-far-it-can-fly-competition
- Attacking mates' shorts with pneumatic cleaner or brake disc cleaner when kneeing under the car
- transporting monocoque toolings in my Golfie for several 100 km's with car already screaming on its bumpstops
- transporting at least 2 spare tires while driving a motorcycle
- entering McDrive with FS-car on trailer
- seeing rabbits pairing in front of our garage at 4 am
- driving barefoot while sharing my best socks as a replacement for a forgotten air filter and see it burning down from airbox backfire
- having to burn down 3 sets of brand new tires in 2 days at the end of the year before sending them back to Pirelli
- see one of our drivers totally nailing one of our huge cones which flies high up in the air and somehow lands back directly on his helmet and gets stuck

[Ozza]

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Getting all exited when "The boat engine make noise!"
<LI>Starting as a sparky with no automotive experience and trying to explain to the black-handers that their "Injector coils" were now wired up and work...
<LI>Using the strongest stripper and a whole bunch of dirty rags for hours on end... Paint stripper that is.
<LI>Throwing a whiteboard in front of a desk and then crawling under the desk, using sponsor t-shirts as pillows so you can sleep and no-one notices.
<LI>You go to the toilet more often than not, knowing your urine is more energy drink than anything else.
<LI>+1 For always being asked "oh are you that go-karting team?"
<LI>Using MOSFETs to implement an electronic shifter, not realising inductive loads MUST be diode supressed. Then turning around to your team leader and yelling it works! Only to turn back and realise the wires in your hands were now on on fire.
[/list]

[scott_rfr]

-we rebuilt our rims (including some really nasty-ass sealant) in the hotel BATHROOM, so we win...
-we don't use carbon, so I have no idea what the black stuff is that comes out of my nose all the time now
-mig slag for the loss (my poor balls)


Engine Head
Columbia University FSAE

- Rebuilding your engine in your hotel bathroom and leaking the oil from the truck to your room.

Scott
Rutgers FSAE

[RacingManiac]

- Being up until 2-4am with 2 other team members getting the car ready to go testing, sleeping in the trailer, then getting up at 7-9am and driving for a hour to the test track, breaking something after running for 10 minutes and coming back to repeat it all
- Having 10 times more "dirty/working on car clothes" than "going into public" clothes
-"Oh hey mom. Yea, I'm in the shop again. Nah nothin new, bye."
-Trying to explain to a cop at a DUI checkpoint at midnight on a Friday night, that I was working on a race car, not out drinking.
-the metal shaving bits...


All too true....

[EPMAl]

-Be stuck at customs for 3 hours trying to explain that the car in your trailer doesn't have any VIN or serial number
-Your breakfast is energy drink
-Giving a heart-shaped carbon fiber plate to your girlfriend as an excuse for being at the shop during her birthday
-Realising at 1h00am when the trailer is packed and you're ready to leave that you have a flat tire on the trailer and the shootout you're attending starts at 7h30 and you're still 600 km away
-When not finding a lighter, actually trying to ignite your torch while grinding steel near it (btw, it doesn't work but you can still light paper with a mig and then light the torch)
-Considering using Motul 300V engine oil as a personal lubricant because it smells so good
-Selling beer in a traffic jam on a highway outside of Las Vegas while being in the school truck

This thread is really, really good.

[jaca]

- When not finding a lighter, actually trying to ignite your torch while grinding steel near it (btw, it doesn't work but you can still light paper with a mig and then light the torch)

this can work

.. or you can light the torch directly from a tig arc, but that's arguably an even worse idea

you know, hypothetically

[EPMAl]

Actually, we did try it but it didn't work. Let's say I wasn't the one who did it I didn't want to stay close either. I also forgot this one:
-Pierce manually 300 1/4'' holes in a steel sheet for our muffler inner tube because the laser cutting company did think the file we sent was a joke

[fixitmattman]

-you've ever gone to security to grab the key and "open up" the shop at 3:00am
-you now find speed channel pretty boring outside of actual races and the powerblock on spike is like watching a special ed class after all the things you've learned doing FSAE

[racer81]

- Getting burned by the expanding foam being poured down a garbage bag in contact with your skin while making a seat mold.

- Getting shrink wrapped - and partially assaulted - just because

- Hammering the intake (yes, the intake) to get it to fit around a tube - in the trailer, at 3 am, at competition.

- Staying up 52 hours straight to get a car finished...only it never got finished.

- "Thats what she said" jokes.

- Having a suspension that actually works - and holds the car up - without hitting the ground.

[racer81]

One More:
The cancer we all probably have for working (and sleeping) in a nuclear lab.

Top Notch this one is for you..

[Mikey Antonakakis]

how to take a nap in style in the shop:
-first, find some scissors
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3303.jpg

-then, find trash bags
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3304.jpg

-cut trash bag
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3305.jpg

-find a place to sleep
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3312.jpg
^^that probably isn't a good place:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3311.jpg

better:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3306.jpg

except it's dirty:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3307.jpg

so you clean it off:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3310.jpg

find some duct tape... if you can't find duct tape, use duct tape's litte brother, electrical tape
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3314.jpg

make the bed:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3315.jpg

look around for pillows.... these "balloons" that somehow ended up in an old body will probably suffice
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3313.jpg

find a plastic bag, and make the pillow a little more flat:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3316.jpg

looks so comfortable!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3317.jpg

Last, add a curtain for privacy in case any girls decide to show up:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/hhspunter/CIMG3318.jpg

Finally, crawl in and go to sleep.... only to have one of the "balloons" in the pillow pop, making your head fall onto the table thing you're sleeping on... then once you fall back asleep after hitting your head, get the best nap of your life... only to be woken up by the shop phone ringing because your team mate is giving you a wake-up call... but forget that you're under the chassis jig table and sit up really fast because the phone is ringing and you don't want to miss the call in case it's someone important! My head still hurts from that....

Oh and in that last picture is a grill we built for competition

[uwptom]

-+1 for: ridiculous comments like, go-kart?, how fast does it go?, our school has a race team?
-+1 for explanation to family that nothing has changed your still busy in the shop with the car
-The truth of all of these posts
-The ability to relate to almost all of these
-and the feeling it gives me to know we all do these things.

EDIT
-getting the chance to tell everyone about your fsae car and its first dyno pull on your schools brand new chassis dyno! (1 hr ago)

[Rex]

- +1 to showing up to class in safety glasses, covered in oil, etc
- +1 to not showing up to class
- +1 for go-kart related comments
- +1 for me calling Auerbach's roadster a go-kart next time I see him
- chassis dyno log roll - a sure-fire way to twist your ankle
- airfoil testing - standing holding the wing in the back of a pickup standing on corner-weight scales and watching the readout at varying speeds
- perforating your hand with the composites perforating tool
- team members turning too sharply and putting the gooseneck race trailer thru the back window of the truck towing it
- your trailer getting hit by a drunk driver on the way to competition, then catching crap from the cop because you need a Class B license to tow a trailer that big
- running over one of the giant orange construction area barrels with the trailer @ 70mph
- realizing that towing a giant gooseneck trailer with 1500-series pickup isn't the best idea when the brakes stop responding on some mountain downgrade in Kentucky or Tennessee
- discovering a cabinet full of metal powders in the lab and everyone's immediate thought is to set them on fire
- catching a professor using the inside of the flammables cabinet as a windscreen so he can light his cigarette
- potato guns
- random people coming to the shop anytime they lock their keys in their car, and almost always being able to retrieve their keys
- thinking upon returning to the shop that you really hope that was actually that guy's car whose keys you just retrieved
- +1 to that weird feeling you get after 20-40 hours without sleep
- -1 to the hallucinating/impending-heart-attack feeling you get after 60-70 hours without sleep

[Jersey Tom]

airfoil testing - standing holding the wing in the back of a pickup standing on corner-weight scales and watching the readout at varying speeds

This is awesome.

There was a picture posted not too far back regarding crush zone testing... where a team built their own "Instron" machine. I believe it consisted of a huge press, digital calipers taped to it to measure displacement, and a bathroom scale for load.

That seems like it would be a good addition to this thread.

[Trevor]

-being greeted on campus with "so how's the car going?" rather than by name
-talking to the clerks at circle K and fastenal about the car more than to my own family
-giving tours to incoming freshman and their parents... and interesting only the parents

Trevor

[kapps]

Things I love about FSAE... "if all else fails, BURN IT!!!"

So we're making this muffler body from rolled aluminum sheet. We needed something to wrap it around for welding and we couldn't find anything with the right diameter. We finally find this piece of acrylic of the perfect OD. Well we roll the aluminum around it and clamp it down in prep for welding. After putting a series of tacks all the way down the seam, we then try to take the acrylic out for finish welding. Well, the acrylic has already melted into the aluminum and no amount of pounding will free it. So our welder decides that maybe the additional heat from fully welding it will melt the acrylic enough to get it out. He fully welds it an it's still stuck. Trying to be scientific, I go online and look up the difference in CTE between aluminum and acrylic (which is actually quite large). A quick toss in the freezer surprisingly gets it a little loose but not enough to get it out. So from the freezer to fire http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_cool.gif. We light up the butane torch and start heating up the acrylic. After a couple minutes, the fire inside the tube in self sustaining and the aluminum wrapped around the outside is getting too hot to handle even with thick welding gloves. We quickly run it over to the hose outside and douse it. Acrylic cracks and slides out leaving a perfectly welded aluminum muffler body. If all else fails, burn it http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[jaca]

airfoil testing - standing holding the wing in the back of a pickup standing on corner-weight scales and watching the readout at varying speeds

so full of win

[Wes Burk]

- Finishing bonding carbon tubes at 1am and using the extra loctite epoxy to bond random things (such as old exhaust setups and uprights) to the walls.
- Waiting until after 10 to paint the car because the building ventilation picks up the fumes and it needs a few hours to clear out before people get there in the morning

[Yellow Ranger]

Originally posted by Trevor:

-giving tours to incoming freshman and their parents... and interesting only the parents



Having one of those tours come near your lab while you yell at the computer calling it a 'piece of shit' and requesting that it should 'suck my balls'

We try and recruit as many people for the university as we can...

[woodsy96]

Most fantastic thread.

+1 to the taping/bonding/welding people/car parts/chairs/tables/cars/cones/brooms to each other

+1 to graduating with your class... I wish.

+1 to the lack of sleep, copious consumption of sugar and energy

- Filling the team leaders draw with expanding foam, screwing the drawer in, and unscrewing the handle.

- Turning the team leader's stationary tray into a savoury snack treat with many items of perishable food, putting it in his drawer overnight and taping the drawer shut to keep in the smell.

- The weekly fights across the workshop/hotel where acceptable ammunition include muesli bars, Moro bars, pens, phone books, cans, anything left that isn't bonded/glued/taped to the floor

- Learning to make anything with a linisher

- Remaking the steering link jig 7 times because it was too innacurate every time, only to not need said jig (wasn't me, but good regardless)

- Turning around to find a newbie saying that there is a fire downstairs by the welder and asking what to do about it when the extinguisher was two metres behind them

- Trying to explain to newbies that it doesn't matter what time they want to come to the workshop, I will probably be there.

- That the forth meal in the day, sometime around midnight, is reffered to as the FSAE meal

- Making of various fun toys. My favorites are the Sonic chair (a chair mounted on two car springs welded together with some 300mm wide channel for the base, and an old harness so you don't fall off), a 2-stroke drill (drill chuck attached to weadeater motor), and various lethal items made for insertion into battery drills.

- The feeling you get when, after wasting an hour trying to do a project, you forfeit the 5% attached to it as collateral so you can get back onto the cost report.

- The feeling you get when you decide not to go to a test because you are going to get 0 anyway, having not gone to a lecture or read a single page of notes for over a month so you can finish the cost report which must be sent that afternoon, having already spent the last 48hours on it

- Not wanting to look at your exam results until after the comp, even though everyone else is discussing theirs

[The AFX Master]

A couple of old stories from F-SAE 07.

Rebuilding your entire diff housing because a leak, at hotel's room, while trying not to stain the carpet floor with diff oil (quite a nasty stuff). When the rebuild is done, some guy threw away his "cherry pepsi + cherry lipton El Presidente" cup all over the carpet. JUST after you've removed at least 10 sq meters out of plastic bags and duct tape to cover the floor...

Going to McDonalds at late night when there's only drive thru. But, when you're hungry, and have no car but a carbon steering wheel and 4 pals, each with a 13" rim..
Drive thru girl accepted "that" as a "car".

Being the visitors that NO ONE wants in their hotel rooms.

[Conor]

Being jealous of the other teams at MIS with fancy headsets and frabricating our own out of earmurphs, a piece of tubing, a toothpaste cap, and some alligator clips with wire. We showed them...

[Scalesy]

Originally posted by jaca:
[QUOTE]

.. or you can light the torch directly from a tig arc, but that's arguably an even worse idea



Converted a propane grill to charcoal and made a spatula with some tubing and sheet metal...but then had no way of lighting the charcoal except for a TIG welder and lighter fluid. It just made so much sense at the time....

[Joe the plumber]

This thread is great http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif!!

-Having a mini Gumball Rally everywhere the team goes.
-Leaving people places because we are in a mini Gumball Rally and don't have time to check for everybody.
-Buying brake cleaner, brake fluid, engine oil and gatorade, and telling the cashier we are going to make Hunch Punch. (at 2am)
-Seeing our powertrain team leader start fires with a MIG welder, trash can and brake clean that was in the trash can.
-Having to clean the shop after putting out said fire because the stuff in a fire extinguisher got into the ventilation and got everywhere. (extremely caustic)
-Pulling more all-nighters for the car than class.
-Parents/girlfriends/friends not understanding why this program is so important to us.
-Explaining to a tech judge how a fuel check valve works.

[Corey H]

-Getting in to the machine shop next door with a hacksaw blade for some late night machining

-White boards and 33 hour drives to Michigan

-Redline inside the building

-Driving it on the street back to the shop after the homecoming parade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCqeckVHEsM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...zWto&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Ce_UxzWto&feature=related)

-50 tacos on Del Tacos 3/$1 Taco Tuesday for meetings

-Hanging hammocks in the shop because the house 1 mile away is just too far

-The 12 on the clock has been replaced with "7-11"

-No money in the bank account http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

-"Cook your own tortillas" and an electric skillet next to the flamables cabinet

-the Bajano

-Having the 30ft SAE poster from the Judges tent in Michigan in our Shop

-15 Passenger Vans and undercover cops

-Using a circular wood saw to cut out the billets for the uprights

-Finding the janitor sleeping on our couch at random hours of the day because he knows that no respectable person will be caught in our shop

-Ordering at the drive through in the FSAE car because there is no room in the cab of the truck and in AZ it is legal to be in the bed.

-Your mom

-Buying our spare engine for competition from a chop shop on the way to competition at 3AM

-Team moto: "next year"

+1 to everything here!

[RBbugBITme]

Not making it to competition when your first of many all nighters started back in October. Yeah I love that.

Having 3 cars in the lab at one time and none of them run. Thats a fun one.

Oh my favorite, trying to get your engine dyno working for about 18 consecutive months.

[flavorPacket]

-rebuilding dampers in a hotel sink full of damper fluid...only to leave the spring perches in the hotel when we left for the track in the morning

-replacing a clutch on track during the autocross event...and putting it in backwards

this thread has me and my team close to tears, keep it up!

[jaca]

-watching our treasurer get a 13'6 tall box van stuck under a (marked) 11'6 overpass

in the middle of harlem

at 2 am

[kapps]

Exhaustion, complete exhaustion. And then coming back to the shop the next day to do it all over again.

Which reminds me, I need to get some sleep...

[Mike Macie]

- Using Welding gloves for grilling
- Letting our battlebot loose in the hall and feeding it whatever we could find in the shop.
- Smashing old computers and random equipment out off the loading dock that the school was throwing out
- Replacing the clean snowmobile section of the shop with a nice couch
-Hallway Chair races
-Finding chips from the machine shop in your clothes and pockets.
-Finding randoms things to use as silverware, making spoons out of aluminum foil
-Blasting random foreign songs found on youtube
-Drawing pictures of what a Wiring Gremlin actually looks like

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by jaca:
-watching our treasurer get a 13'6 tall box van stuck under a (marked) 11'6 overpass

in the middle of harlem

at 2 am
He's not in the engineering school, that's all I have to say about that.

[Diablo_niterider]

Explaining to your female friends that MEGASQUIRT is not PORN

Watching your girl give you that million dollar I-M-dating-A-Maniac look, when you excitedly tell her about the weight reduced on the engine.

Realizing you are allergic to carbon fibre, after your thighs develop a rash thanks to the raw carbon fibre sample you put in your pocket(damn it was bad).

Using nylon ties (straps) for holding possibly everything in place.

+1 on the people asking for mileage

doing up Megasquirt

Getting abused by people you wake them up at 4 am, due to that all-important test run without the Muffler http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Seeing everything blurrrrr, when you set the drive ratio 4.2 and run unrestricted… ahhh!!!

Sleeping peacefully by laying (balancing) on three chairs with the soothing sound of the grinder in the backdrop.

Trying to find a pair of jeans without oil stains for a date, wearing ones with the least.

Bumping into that hottie at college in the filthiest possible way when you are trying to avoid her.

Drawing Suspicion from people when you carry a muffler(which looks like a bomb Shell) in the train, right after the terror attacks in the city.

Getting the best Ideas for the car when you are studying for that all-important test.

Having to Explain FSAE to everyone who asks, thinking they could help in sponsoring anything

+1 on meeting your team freshman as your classmates as you end up dropping years.

[Bazanaius]

+1 to most of these, expecially:


Getting the best Ideas for the car when you are studying for that all-important test.

Having to Explain FSAE to everyone who asks, thinking they could help in sponsoring anything

[Moke]

I forgot:

- Getting a highly sort after summer job at a mayor engineering company after the application deadline without sending a CV or having a interview or meeting the required GPA, just by calling and saying you're from the team.

and:

- Reading this post going "Yep done that" for nearly everything.

[jm1495]

Walking out of an exam, hearing the dyno running and knowing that you're the only person who knows what that sweet sound is.

Helping redesign/rebuild the entire drive train with seniors in caps & gowns while parents come by for a tour.

[RacingManiac]

Originally posted by jaca:

this can work

.. or you can light the torch directly from a tig arc, but that's arguably an even worse idea

you know, hypothetically

Worked many time.....http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Beaudry]

<LI> +1 to hitting a large highway pylon at 70mph
<LI> Having the axle break on the side of the trailer which hit the pylon in Vegas on the way back from comp a full year later, and then having to leave it there for 6 weeks while a freighliner shop searched for new parts for it
<LI> The only truck we can use is the old Ethanol Challenge truck. It has gone through 3 transmissions, one on the way back from detroit. Props to Chevy for making a truck that can drive 3200km in second gear at 80km/h with a large trailer.
<LI>Welding an office chair to the robot project's old robot so you have a motorized wheel chair
<LI>Discovering that a microwave is a better impact attenuator than anything that's made it on our cars in the last 10 years

Marcus
University of Alberta

[JamesWolak]

Moving random cars out of our testing parking lot with go jacks and no permission.

That i rank school's engineering programs solely on their FSAE team's results over the past 4 years.

The looks on everyones' face when driving the car through inner campus during the 5:00PM rush.

That days end and begin at 5:00AM not midnight.

The smell of GT100 (back in 2007)

That we have had to cut off at least 3 sets of locks on our trailer because no one on the team has the keys.

[lporter]

+1 to rebuilding the diff in the hotel bathroom
+1 to having 3+ old cars in the shop, none of which run..... and still building a new one every year for some reason
+1 to Daft Punk/ATB/Oakenfold/Tiesto on Pandora
+++1 to the friends

-McMaster Carr orders every week

-Twizzlers for dinner

-F1 races at 3 AM

-taking the air boxes off the rental cars/Penske

-burnouts with the rental cars

-having a bottle rocket fight between the rental cars and the Penske in the middle of the night on I-90

-going through 20' of filler rod is considered a "slow" night at the shop

-drinking coffee by the pot instead of by the cup like a normal person

[Drew Price]

It's 3pm, and I just found a metal splinter in my thumb that I could only have got yesterday, and I slept for 5 hours .... and showered.


(???)


Keeping an eye out for freshman parent tours / visiting lecturers / Saturday masters program meetings / department meetings, because you can hit up the provided food tables and get your lunch, dinner for that night, tomorrow's breakfast (all ham sandwiches), and 5-6 cokes in a good run when no-one's looking, with the express thought that then you don't have to leave the shop till lunchtime tomorrow.


Best,
Drew

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Drew Price:
It's 3pm, and I just found a metal splinter in my thumb that I could only have got yesterday, and I slept for 5 hours .... and showered.


(???)


Keeping an eye out for freshman parent tours / visiting lecturers / Saturday masters program meetings / department meetings, because you can hit up the provided food tables and get your lunch, dinner for that night, tomorrow's breakfast (all ham sandwiches), and 5-6 cokes in a good run when no-one's looking, with the express thought that then you don't have to leave the shop till lunchtime tomorrow.


Best,
Drew

I am laughing out loud because that happened yesterday

[Whis]

Thats what she said jokes. Why does everything in Formula have holes with some sort of shaft in them....

Yelling at Baja for using the radio and not Pandora.

Wondering what a 2 Flute mill at 100 rpm would do at 60ipm on a 1 inch pass to a piece of a aluminum.

Watching ASME mig weld. Or try to.

Watching the coil vibrate on the dyno. Finding out the coil looks like it got hammered later on.

Finding out the bearings on the same janky dyno were run dry and that we pretty much blew them up at 9000 RPM. It was oval shaped... I didn't know they did that.

[kapps]

Originally posted by Whis:
Wondering what a 2 Flute mill at 100 rpm would do at 60ipm on a 1 inch pass to a piece of a aluminum.


Haha. Nice one. I tried to see what a 3/4" endmill would do at 150 ipm at 1000 rpm .300" doc. I was wondering why it started the lead-in so fast so I slowed it down to 10%. It then proceeded to run at rapid in about 4 inches before I got to the E-stop. Turns out the operation defaulted to 1500 ipm http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_mad.gif . The best part is that endmill was my best one. I've made countless parts out of it, nicked a corner off the end of one flute as I ran it into the vice without the spindle on http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif, and it has made countless part since (including the bearing surfaces for our uprights and diff hangers).

[t21jj]

Originally posted by Whis:
Thats what she said jokes. Why does everything in Formula have holes with some sort of shaft in them....

Yelling at Baja for using the radio and not Pandora.

Wondering what a 2 Flute mill at 100 rpm would do at 60ipm on a 1 inch pass to a piece of a aluminum.

Watching ASME mig weld. Or try to.

Watching the coil vibrate on the dyno. Finding out the coil looks like it got hammered later on.

Finding out the bearings on the same janky dyno were run dry and that we pretty much blew them up at 9000 RPM. It was oval shaped... I didn't know they did that.

And set the muffler on fire at the same time.

[Hector]

Originally posted by Whis:
Watching ASME mig weld. Or try to.

So I guess we're not the only team that gets a laugh at our ASME's projects. Our school's human-powered vehicle team had a frame that looked like they just heated the tubes and rammed them repeatedly into the node until the metal kind of stuck there. They gave up on that project (after multiple years of working and no competition) and began a human-powered sub. Instead of using a chain drive with the correct sprocket ratios, they simply linked multiple drives together to get the same effect. Seems to me that when the governing factor of your competition is overcoming a huge amount of water resistance with less than one horsepower, an efficient driveline would be a top priority.

In short, another thing I love about formula is being able to make fun of all the other student "projects".

[kapps]

Me too. We seem to be the only students on campus that actually know how to make something the right way (and quite often, the not so right way that gets it done twice as fast).

[Whis]

Yep. Power pullers are pretty decent too apparently... Then again, they have a 900 lb limit and I've only seen 4 Briggs & Straton on one. Seems to me like some carbon fiber frame rails and 12 Briggs would be feasible.

Yes, ASME doesn't have a clue. Most of the guys on the team are pretty cool. Some think they know it all. Eh... I did find the 400 dollar CVT funny, along with the "clean" metal parts to be welded. Turns out, after telling him to clean his parts, he turned to me and said "It is clean! We just got it out of the box!" *Beats head against wall*

[RacingManiac]

-listen to the Industrial Engineering folks ask you a question like "you can drill holes in steel?" for the design project....

-building and finishing the said project by yourself and 2 other FSAEer while the "Indys" debate how it should be built, then went back to work on the real project...

+1 on the campus tour food....

[Adambomb]

-Saran wrapping Jon Jon
-Racing the display stand holders, baja car wheel chair style, rolly chairs, or anything else we can coax to move in a straight line
-Microwaving CDs
-Blaming everything that goes wrong on Baja or HPV
-Resisting the urge not to punch people when they ask if it's the solar car...especially after we tell them it runs on E85
-Trying to dumb down engineering specs when people ask what our top speed is
-+100 on people asking for mileage
-Figuring out how to reverse engineer an application for slow-witted parts store employees (i.e. if you want a 1/2-20 lug nut, ask for one for an '84 Ford E-150)
-Complaining about all the dirty hippies in charge of the university
-Testing ammunition at the local rifle range by seeing how big of a hole it blows in failed parts
-The infamous ISU go-kart, and to a lesser extent, the Shop Spear
-Janky dyno setups, jankier data aquisition setups
-PBR in the hotel at the FSAE challenge in Salina, along with carry-out 40s from the Ponderosa
-Feeling genuinely concerned for the safety of anyone driving the baja car or HPV
-Watching HPV Bondo the kinks in their main roll hoop
-Feeling genuinely concerned for my own safety when a lead-footed, ham-fisted newbie drives our car
-Getting a D in Music 102 and being proud of it
-Riding in the trailer on the way back from MIS with 5 other guys...my job was to keep the band saw from falling on the car
-Making big fire balls with the diesel injector tester and a good 'ol MAPP gas torch
-Making your own tools, especially when the chop saw, plasma cutter, baja hammer (2 lb hammer), giant MIG welder, and angle iron are involved
-20 year old motorcycles, especially 2-strokes with way too much power and way too little weight
-Trying to come up with answers to Claude's questions
-Feeding sponsorship pamphlets, sheet metal, high-density foam, and plywood to a very hungry 1940's era fan
-Posting to the forums at 2:20 am

[Smith]

Adambomb, I noticed your posting time first, and I thought that said it all right there.

This has been a great read, and all sounds the same everywhere. Strangely, I can relate to the Daft Punk Pandora the most. I bet they have no idea how many cars they have helped build.


Some additions:

-Every drive anywhere becoming a race, even after specificly saying that we wont.
-Naming the corners on your campus for people that have off'd their cars there.
-Stealing the parents Audi, driving it to two competitions and not telling them until the word gets out at the dinner table a few months later.
-Every mecahnical solution ending with fire
-Building a go-kart too powerful to drive.
-The Can It Be Shorter arbor press.
-Giving great nick-names for people doing stupid things
-The amazing sight of a mag/ti fueled belt sander fire.

[EliseS2]

Originally posted by Adambomb:

-Blaming everything that goes wrong on Baja or HPV
-Watching HPV Bondo the kinks in their main roll hoop



I would like to add that I loved how well run FSAE is compared to HPV. I did FSAE first, but ended up doing HPV for my senior design project. The roll hoop rules for that competition are ridiculous. First there are no rules about how it is attached to the frame of the bike. Also there are no rules about any sort of supports for the hoop. The rules also allowed any material to be used as long as it structurally equivalent to the base steel one in the rules. So with about a half page of calculation we were able to show our carbon fiber roll hoop was equivalent to a steel one, I knew the calculation were bunk, but it was good enough and cut 12lbs of weight off of the bike. It is ridiculous that it was allowed, it shows that they do not really care about safety. Also the seat belt rules had the same issues with no rules how they were mounted.

The design competition was also insane. You did a 10 min presentation and then there were just a couple minutes scheduled for questions by the judges and the questions counted for very little of score. I was totally prepared for a FSAE style tear down of the design, but instead the judges just asked questions that were already addressed in the presentation like weight. Not only that, but the HPV that won had a hydraulic drivetrain! I mean it was very well built HPV and well executed, but come on. It weighted over 120lbs! It could not go up hills. Why would the design choice for a very heavy, ineffcient, costly, and maintenance intensive (they were constantly bleeding the system) design be justified and rewarded. They would have been destroyed in the design tent.

Then the worst was the endurance competition going compeltly against the rules. The endurance competition was supposed to have turns in both directions with some turns meeting the minimum radius requirement, the rules specifically state the course should show the maneuverability of the design. Well they decided to hold it on a freaking 1/2 mile oval! Our design was very light, only one was lighter and the next closest was over 20lbs heavier. We focused on light over aerodynic based on the rules, because light design could brake later, take the turn faster, and accelerate out of the turn faster. But on an oval suddenly the 100+lbs designs were suddenly competitive. FSAE would never change the endurance course to an oval with no warning.

After that competition I really missed formula.

[JamesWolak]

Originally posted by Beaudry:
<LI>Discovering that a microwave is a better impact attenuator than anything that's made it on our cars in the last 10 years


That is the only impact attenuator video that would be worthy of watching

[Faterooski]

-Bringing in a 6 pack of Bud Light aluminum bottles and telling the team to drink up because we needed the bottles to help form certain shapes for our body panel molds.

-The universal hatred of ricers, their cars, and their lack of any real racecar design knowledge

-New members who's first questions are always "Can we run a turbo?"

-Seeing the FSAE member's senior design projects (which were all WORKING parts and assemblies and had decent displays and explanations to go along with them) vs. some of the absolutely pitiful "civilian" student projects

-Not to sound conceited, but I have to say I enjoyed everyone on our FSAE team going to awesome jobs after graduation (and many having to choose between multiple great job offers), while many of the "civilians" were still scrambling around come April, wondering why they couldn't find a job even with their 3.9 gpa.

-Having a general disdain for the rest of the engineering school and ESPECIALLY the rest of the general university population (liberal arts, art, pre-meds, etc)

+1 on the people and friends

[Faterooski]

I'll edit my third one...
-New members who's first questions are always "Can we run a turbo/supercharger/nitrous/wings/paddleshifter/dual exhaust?"

[DanVaan]

We do have that video of the microwave test somewhere. Also one crushing a computer tower, and our old foam impact attenuator disintegrating. I'll try to find it tomorrow when i get back into our office and post it somewhere.

[kapps]

Originally posted by Faterooski:
I'll edit my third one...
-New members who's first questions are always "Can we run a turbo/supercharger/nitrous/wings/paddleshifter/dual exhaust?"

Unfortunately, it's not just the new members on our team who say such things. If only fsae required no bodywork and no engine, we might be rid of those who make such comments.

[Conor]

Feeling the relief of graduation and the passing of the torch (and duties) to younger talent only to day dream about being back on the team 6 months later. I'm still trying to deal with the withdrawals. My team must hate how much I beg them to post new photos.

[Adam F]

This is the best thread I've ever read.

-the guy at Autozone asking me "what model car is it for?" EVERY TIME
-The tour guides who tell prospective students it's the Formula 1 car
-"How fast does it go?"
- tolerance= +- a Baja

[Whis]

Better yet.

Going to Advance Auto Parts, saying I need this part. Pulling out a list of cars that have that part. Getting one of the funniest looks ever.

Buying lawnmower spark plugs for the screw doo-hickey.

Riding in the trailer. I took car of being the cushion for the car in a crash. I mean, I was making sure the car didn't move.

MIG welders on 35 Amps. Welding 3/8ths inch steel. Feeling the heat through gloves, a sweatshirt and long sleeve shirt.

Finding computers to run everything we need.

Jaying things up.

Hairing things up.

Missing a manifold twice with both a AR-15 and a Mossin Agant. (sp?)

Running the car at 2 in the morning.

Learning about brake flares.

Fixing the brake flaring tool.

[Whis]

OH YEAH!

THE FML SENSOR!!!!!!!

[Adambomb]

-Back to back to back all-nighters
-Being on a first-name basis with the guy who works overnight at the local Swift Stop
-Trying to explain what MEK is to Wal-Mart clerks at 3 am, in hopes they just might have some
-Building your own Solidworks-capable computer lab after the university nazis screw you over
-Installing 3DMark03 on said hand-me-down computers so you can race them
-Not flinching when you get burned anymore
-The smell of sweet sweet Bondo...I can't get enough.
-Mounting power tools to other power tools to get mad-scientist level material removal rates
-Building parts for your daily driver in the shop because they are superior, cheaper, and "will only take a couple minutes." Besides, if anyone asks it's a good excuse to "practice machining."
-Having your friends that are addicted to WOW tell you you spend too much time with Formula

[MalcolmG]

the quotes thread reminded me of another fun pasttime:

playing everything that's even slightly tubular like a trumpet - exhaust pipes, radiator hoses, the spindle on the lathe, bellcrank pins, fuel rails, 15m of PVC electrical conduit, etc http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[jaca]

heh, trying to buying MEK at walmart.. might raise a few red flags

[kapps]

Running XP password cracks on computers at the shop to gain admin rights. Then telling the computer techs that they didn't come with passwords when we got them. They didn't ask again...

Also, not necessarily a FSAE thing but general SAE... we are the most hooked up organization on campus. We are on a first name basis with the computer guys, EHS guy (although we don't necessary like him), the secretaries in the Mechanical department and the College, half a dozen professors, and the building manager who will do anything to help us. We have spoken to the president of the University when the Dean of Engineering was giving us the runaround. On top of all that, several of us are in a work-study program with a major corporation that supports our university. We have quite a few contacts in the ME labs for things like laser cutting and rapid prototyping as well as some higher-ups that we can talk to on the rare occasion we need some weight thrown around.

Doesn't seem too far a fetch that we have a few enemies as well.

[L B0MB]

- seeing the car roll for the first time on the afternoon of the car launch 2 weeks before comp
- taking shifts in pulling an all nighter followed by a night of 5 hours sleep for a week leading up to comp
- random stupidity and agressiveness from lack of sleep
- seeing the car move under its own power 2 days before the comp
- testing the car in a quiet new development at 2am 2 days before comp
- having a wheel fall off the trailer returning from said testing session and having to hire a box trailer from local servo [edit: at 6am]
- fixing the broken trailer by chocking up tandem axles with firewood and driving it to truck depot on 3 wheels
- discovering the gear selector shaft is hollow causing the split pin to leak oil everywhere on the tilt table
- getting the main hoop extended to meet the helmet clearance rule with our f*cking tall drivers
- passing noise test first go on 110.0dB
- spitting a driveshaft out and smashing a tripod on the skid pan in pactise
- getting to autocross 5min before close and finishing it
- being black flagged in enduro for compliant suspension mounts
- the indian cars
- scissoring a team mate in front of 500+ people at comp
- the massive sausage fest after party
- sleeping 11 hours a day for a week after comp

[Adambomb]

playing everything that's even slightly tubular like a trumpet - exhaust pipes, radiator hoses, the spindle on the lathe, bellcrank pins, fuel rails, 15m of PVC electrical conduit, etc

I love it, we have to break out the "shop pipes" all the time. The main roll hoop on our '07 car has surprisingly good timbre.

Such an awesome thread...like 98% of the stuff on here has happened at our shop at some point in time. Sort of weird.

Also agree with being the most hooked up/hated organization on campus. Lots of people are really cool and helpful, but naturally there are always the worthless fun-hating tools.

[jaca]

working with acetone so much that you start expecting water to evaporate instantly when you wash your hands

[George 4]

-spending spring fling weekend away from the real entertainment
-coming back at 2 and police and public safety wonder why you are are drunk (spring fling weekend)
-people asking about the "Go Kart"
-turning a brown floor gray with primer, then changing it back with black paint
-CHICKEN PESTO PIZZA

[George 4]

-using equipment we aren't supposed too (fork lifts, goft carts, lathes, etc)
-coming back to a party and everyone asking you "where were you" even though you say the same thing week after week

[Scalesy]

-obsessively checking the thickness of the seat belt bar

-being relieved after obsessively checking the thickness of the seat belt bar...as it if was expected to shrink

-rolling freshman around in tires at competition...and not stopping until they cry "it burns!!"

-floating beers to one another in an empty garbage can, in the hot tub at the hotel.

-putting a grip on the end of a 3' section of .095" tubing, and deeming it "Mr. Happy"

-the fact that it is currently 3:30 am

[Kemper]

-Being EE student, get 6 stiches on you right hand mid-finger by fooling around with moving parts at 2AM, go to the machine shop 10h later (after 4h sleep) and still being able to machine parts quicker and nicer than a "civilian" ME student

-being extremely happy when you didn't go to a party where all your civilian friends made out with hot chicks, but you stayed at the shop and managed to listen your engine roar for the very first time

-design on-the-go

-consider all-nighters as normal schedule

[kapps]

A couple good one's that happened today...

I get to the shop in the morning to find the formula car missing. Turns out our sr. design drivetrain guys who had their showcase yesterday (on wait, its after midnight, make that Friday) had left the car in the Engineering building. Our shop is on the outskirts of campus a half mile or so away. Nobody else was there so the team leader and I hitch a ride over to Engineering and push the car out. After spending 15 minutes adjusting camber and toe on all the wheels so it actually rolls easily, we start pushing it through campus towards the shop. After a quarter mile of half walking, half running, the two of us were getting pretty beat. At that point, we see the greatest site ever... three of our other teammates coming to help in a truck. We didn't have a tow rope so one of them got on the front of the car while I jumped in the back of the truck. He grabbed the tailgate and I grabbed his arms for added security. We pulled the car back to the shop at 10mph... passing right next to the police station.

Then a few hours ago we had finally got the pedals and push/pull cables mounted. I get in the car and notice something's extremely wrong (I'm 6'4"). The team leader (who's 5'9" with a long torso) had mounted the seat about as far as he could stand from the pedals but it still wasn't far enough for me or any of the other tall guys. After a few minutes of scratching our heads, I exclaim that if the steering wheel mount was positioned in a different manner, I would have a lot more room to bend my knees. In the time span of 30 minutes, the old one was cut out and a new one made. Much better. Gotta love gettin' it done.

[Scalesy]

Originally posted by L Bomb:

- passing noise test first go on 110.0dB



I thought we cut it close with 109.6 but 110 sure has that beat!

also gotta love guessing on brake bias, and locking all 4's up first time....actually, guessed on the whole brake system now that i think of it...

[Whis]

Who passes tech? Blah. So, we pulled out our handy dandy spl meter from the random pile of shit closest and failed on our super accurate and precise (Read: Not calibrated, could have been there for years) and got a beautiful 116 dB! YAY. Our answer? Gonzo Racewerks muffler. Least thats adambombs answer.

And dude, you wash your hands with water? Just use acetone, its already on your hands. Stay away from MEK though. Evil stuff.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

And dude, you wash your hands with water? Just use acetone, its already on your hands. Stay away from MEK though. Evil stuff.
He just does our electronics http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

[jaca]

... and machining, and welding, and mechanical design

ass http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by jaca:
... and machining, and welding, and mechanical design

ass http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
<3

[Pennyman]

Don't ask...

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs018.snc1/3011_90956725241_507885241_2431062_4735319_n.jpg

[Mikey Antonakakis]

^^ that is excellent. We need another couch in our shop, or at least near our shop. The mechanical engineering dept doesn't appreciate it if we crash in their lobby, as much as they love us.

[incorrigible]

At VIR.....
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w204/widelyunknown/VIRandsome048.jpg

[Raechel]

+1 being able to make fun of all the other student "projects"

- being at the garage more than supermileage vehicle when it's their crunch time for comp

- not actually having any real friends outside of FSAE

- accidentally referring to FSAE inside jokes to non-FSAE people

- blaming everything that goes wrong on the alumni


Originally posted by Corey H:
-50 tacos on Del Tacos 3/$1 Taco Tuesday for meetings


We had a $4 Del Taco eating contest before Fontana last year... We call it the 12 Tacos of Del Taco and it's destined to be an annual tradition! Other teams are welcome to show up too. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Mikey Antonakakis]

-how it's now a competition to see who can stay up/work on the car the longest... at least between two members on the team. I pulled 39 hours yesterday, and we now have a fully welded and painted chassis and suspension as a result. If only I hadn't gotten more paint in my nose/arms/hands/face/hair than the frame, we'd have saved some money. Four hours of sleep and I'm good to go! Cheers to the FSAE program for promoting healthy living http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[cjanota]

I did about 44 hrs on the cost report because I was afraid that they would nitpick every little fit and labor. They didn't.

[Kirk Feldkamp]

Originally posted by Raechel:
- blaming everything that goes wrong on the alumni


Ya, those alumni are nothin' but a bunch of jerks!

[billywight]

There's some pretty good stuff in here, a lot is common with all teams. Here's one of our good stories from 2005:

Friday, 11:00am: Truck and trailer leave from San Diego for Detroit. One of the team members volunteered his truck to save on the cost of a rental. For some reason I start working on Design presentation materials. Everyone else starts working on beer...

Friday, 5:00pm: Phone call that the trucks transmission blew up near Vegas. Great.

Friday, 5:00-8:30pm: Many phone calls later and lots of driving around San Diego, pick up rental truck, install radar detector, and begin hauling ass to Las Vegas.

Friday, 8:35pm: Find that speed governor of rental truck is set at 97mph while passing slower traffic with facing oncoming traffic...

Saturday, 12:00am - 2:00am: Arrive in Vegas and locate team members. Transfer stuff from broken truck to rental truck. Drive to the trailer which was dropped off at Circus-circus. Fear and Loathing quotes are prevalent.

Saturday, 3:00am: Attempt to attach trailer to rental truck. Realize that rental company has installed a lock in the receiver hitch. Awesome. Attempts to shear off lock with a jack and jumping in the truck bed fail.

http://www.luxonengineering.com/files/blowtorch/1.jpg

Saturday, 3:30-4:30am: Call everyone I know in Vegas in an attempt to find a cutoff wheel or similar. Finally someone answers who has some tools. Drive to their place.

Saturday, 5:00am: Look around the garage to find suitable destruction tool. Team member asks, Will this work? Hell yeah that will work!

http://www.luxonengineering.com/files/blowtorch/2.jpg

http://www.luxonengineering.com/files/blowtorch/3.jpg

http://www.luxonengineering.com/files/blowtorch/4.jpg

Saturday, 6:00am: Truck and trailer back on the road to Detroit! I stay in Vegas.

Sunday: Successfully arrange for my flight from Vegas to San Diego so I can catch the flight to from San Diego to Detroit.

Monday, 7:00am: Miss flight to San Diego. Catch the next flight in time to miss flight from San Diego to Detroit.

Monday, 10:00pm: Arrive in Detroit after several screwball connections flying all over the US.

The truck and trailer ended up making it on time, though the whole process could have been a bit smoother...

2005 was probably our craziest year with the car so this adventure just made sense... My record for staying up is 55 hours straight, and that was while operating two CNC machines, welding, driving to drop off parts for finish, etc. When I finally got to sleep, I slept for 24 hours straight!

[Mark TMV]

We had a $4 Del Taco eating contest before Fontana last year... We call it the 12 Tacos of Del Taco and it's destined to be an annual tradition! Other teams are welcome to show up too.

We had that contest last year! It was amazing. Only two ppl managed to finish that 'endurance event' http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
This is making me very hungry...

[Raechel]

- logging on to Gmail chat, promptly getting bombarded with questions of "How's the car going?" (mostly from this guy (http://fsae.com/eve/personal?x_myspace_page=profile&u=9866022265) and this guy (http://fsae.com/eve/personal?x_myspace_page=profile&u=14510762811)), and thus completely destroying any semblance of productivity for the next 2 hours

- avoiding Gmail chat for the next 3 months

- also, the Googly-Eyed Wheel Monster

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/fahneee/IMG_0111.jpg

[alumasteel]

- that feeling you get when it moves under it's own power for the first time
- having tacky paint when arriving at competition
- getting sketchy advice for how to fix the seat belt bar that doesn't have thick enough tubing from the tech official
- listening to "civilians" complain about not getting enough sleep
- my bed permanently reeking of GoJo hand cleaner and "Magic Tap" lubricant
- drinking Red Bull by the case
- being regulars at McD's breakfast.. when it opens at 4AM
- learning the hard way that aluminum is not a good choice for spindles as the car your driving suddenly looses the entire LF wheel assembly
- remembering vividly the agony and sleep deprivation, but still wishing you could do it all over again..
- hiding Baja's Upright/A-arm assembly on the shop crane and watching them turn the shop upside down looking for it..

http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss11/meadorsp/APRIL009.jpg

[Raechel]

Originally posted by Mark TMV:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">We had a $4 Del Taco eating contest before Fontana last year... We call it the 12 Tacos of Del Taco and it's destined to be an annual tradition! Other teams are welcome to show up too.

We had that contest last year! It was amazing. Only two ppl managed to finish that 'endurance event' http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
This is making me very hungry... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Last year we only had 2 competitors, but this year have at least 4 who have committed to it. Are you going to Fontana? We could have teams... Turn it into the 24 Tacos of Del Taco. My mind is spinning already. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[Rellis]

miller high life totem pole at competition.

"clean off runs" with the s10 blazer

getting kicked out of the hotel pool because aparantly 40z are not allowed in the pool

elderly singles convention

smahing things...

D in Music 102 being your hardest fought grade ever. even with the extra credit

death threats to those that scratch the body

[Ash47]

http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss92/fsae47/DSC_5765-1.jpg
http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss92/fsae47/DSC_5801-1.jpg
http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss92/fsae47/DSC_5786.jpg

[MalcolmG]

- The Anchorman

[benny41]

great thread so far. just a couple of things to add

- being able to build our car in less than 6mths
- relising later that this isnt such a good idea
- being constantlly woken up in bed itchy as from either fibre glass or carbon.
- finding out that you can pretty much fit anything sae related into a toyota camry station wagon
- the races to maccas when its 10:55 pm they close at 11 and you havnt had anything to eat since 8 am that morning
- the celebration when red bull or any other energy drink is on special
- finding out that a 50cent spring caused our two failures in the enduros last year
-smoking out our workshop with our good old faithful vacuum pump. its had more resin and oil go through it than i reckon any of the cars we have built
- learning much more than i ever will siting in lectures
- +1 for friends
- + 1 for first years and general publc asking dumb questions. my fav is does it have abs? and why wouldnt you have abs?

[Drew Price]

-The coffee maker is on more than the CNC mill....
-"I don't want to see the bottom of this cup." is not something you tell the bartender, it's what you tell the newbie freshman who is closest to the coffee machine in the Formula office.
-Fitting anything SAE related into or on top of a Saab 900 3-door.


...and the one that is happening right now....

-My 4-year old laptop runs COSMOS simulations on contact assembly files faster than our dual Xeon cored HP workstation office computer. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_mad.gif



Best,
Drew

[Nishant Jain]

- The blank look on your face when you tell a friend about Formula SAE and he/she asks, "Oh cool. So, what else is up?"

- The feeling of achievement and pride when you can tell the size of a bolt by merely looking at it.

- Getting the size wrong and yelling at a junior for giving you the wrong spanner.

- Discovering that everything, in every way, no matter the precautions taken, will leak.

[t21jj]

The "11 distance tolerance scale"
0 Random length
1 Speculated length
2 Fractional finger index (1 2/3 index fingers..etc)
3 Nearly equivalent to a nearby object
4 Eyeball
5 Tape measure
6 Ruler
7 Caliper
8 Micrometer
9 CMM
10 Divine Placement

[Drew Price]

On that note:


http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v295/179/125/2413466/n2413466_34663919_3006.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v295/179/125/2413466/n2413466_34663916_2229.jpg



Best,
Drew

[Scalesy]

-Waking up in the morning with your first thought being, "how should I prevent the gas pedal from coming back too far?"

-Solving the problem 5 minutes later when opening the medicine cabinet to brush your teeth, only to find a perfect length of cable, with rings on each end that stops the door from hitting the wall

[alumasteel]

- suddenly realizing that you've forgotten to eat for over 24 hours because you kept putting it off until you had more time

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Scalesy:
-Waking up in the morning with your first thought being, "how should I prevent the gas pedal from coming back too far?"

My answer was some 1/16" stainless fill rod http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[JamesWolak]

Originally posted by alumasteel:
- suddenly realizing that you've forgotten to eat for over 24 hours because you kept putting it off until you had more time

+1

[consig]

joes dandruff...


...and other obvious problem with general hygiene

[Marty J]

Corey H:
-Buying our spare engine for competition from a chop shop on the way to competition at 3AM

As i recall, you guys pretty much bought a whole GSXR (i've got pictures) which brings me to my next point.

-Taking out post comp frustrations by joining a near by team in dropping a GSXR on a broken chop saw.

-Welding a $15 cherry bomb muffler onto your $1500 stainless exhaust system because it was too loud.

-cutting off that muffler, bashing it with a hammer then running it over with your truck after you break and axle during the break test.

-re-wiring the entire car with a different ECU on the first night of comp because the damn thing wont start.

-Building the engine inside of an enclosed trailer parked INFRONT of your shop because the school kicks the team out of the lab at 8pm.

-spending several nights on a cot in said trailer.

-setting out to design the body work with the main goal being "try to make it NOT look like a penis"

-spending spring break in San Diego... inside... doing the cost report.

-Having an end-mill that was left in your pocket slice holes through a whole load of jeans.

-Explaining to the undergrad shop techs how to use the mills.

-Putting on a CAD work shop for ASME (even though im not even an ME)

there are so many more but ill close with these two for now.

-Being an Econ major, and knowing more profs in the College of Engineering.

-Not signing on to this forum for so long I forgot what e-mail i used... making a new profile just to respond to this.

[Pennyman]

Originally posted by Marty J:
-Building the engine inside of an enclosed trailer parked INFRONT of your shop because the school kicks the team out of the lab at 8pm.

-Visiting a nearby team for a BBQ and being warned that our stuff will be locked in their shop at 8pm.

[JamesWolak]

I can't let this thread die.

-That i have successfully missed the post comp team picture for the last three years.

-That there is no use of first names on the team. You either have some ridiculous nickname or you are called by some mispronunciation of your last name.

-That our body team has failed the minimum radius rule the the past three years. Even though they are well aware of it and tried to address it.

[RacingManiac]

Originally posted by JamesWolak:

-That there is no use of first names on the team. You either have some ridiculous nickname or you are called by some mispronunciation of your last name.



That is quite true.....http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[J.R.]

Having so much stuff on suspensions and vehicle dynamics in your inbox that G-mails advertisement is for OptimumG. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Drew Price]

Was chatting with our composites guy this evening back in Illinois (I've moved out to LA) and paused for a second about whether it was too late to call him from the time difference -- because his time was 'advanced' 2 hours from me. Hawaii is 'retarded' 6 hours.

Rediculous.



Best,
Drew

[Muad'Dib]

-hitting a cone in enduro and having it hit your killswitch
-the pushbar competition
-trying to beat your testing skidpad times on a bicycle

-the Philadelphia Parking Authority
-'fixing' your gas tank with a hammer so it's not the lowest point on the car
-JBQuick
-sending freshman outside to cut carbon so we don't get all itchy

[Kevin Dunn]

Originally posted by Muad'Dib:
-'fixing' your gas tank with a hammer so it's not the lowest point on the car


We've done that too...except after the hammer didn't work we picked the car up, set something under it and then set the car ontop.

[coastertrav]

I'm enjoying this thread so much, lurked for awhile, but had to sign up just to comment.

-"Well at first it was like this, then we fucked up, now it's like this"

-Almost being killed while leaving the shop with the engine team leader for McDonalds because the car that almost ran us off the road was infact the autonomous car the shop down the street is making, and they are shoddier than us.

-Being told by other FSAE teams "it must be nice being in Florida where you can test all year"...yeah, about that.

-Not having our own bathroom at the shop but getting very good at breaking into the Aero lab next door.

-Using some old senior design project "the flexie flier" as a test bed for impact testing by running it down a loading dock into a wall.

-Rolling your eyes at the other engineering clubs and their projects. (SWE? Really? They have a scrapbook competition)

-Moving a CNC in the shop with ratchet straps, a dolly, a shoddy pulley system, and hope that the adviser (or anyone else) doesn't decide to drop in.

-Being the club in the homecoming parade that no one recognizes, but everyone remembers because of the sweet burnout at the judges station.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/coastertrav/FSAE/DSC_1069.jpg

-Using the unfortunate cars that drove into our coned off testing parking lot as apex points.

-Moving cars (who needs permission?) out of the parking lot because using them as apex points is hard to explain to insurance companies.

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww46/knights-racing/5-9-09/DSC_3549.jpg

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww46/knights-racing/5-9-09/DSC_3554.jpg

-Being yelled at the next day by the owner of the car because we were not in the right to move it (we told her it was for her own good), but having a police officer with a good since of humor handle the whole thing.

-Finding out that a Kia rental minivan is faster than a Dodge rental van, but both are faster than a late ninety's V6 Camaro.

-Explaining to the people in the Wal-Mart parking lot that the rental vans are yours and the graphics you are applying actually add like 28 wheel horsepower.

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww46/knights-racing/Michigan/DSC_4072.jpg

-Realizing that the Kia is only winning because the driver is wearing the racing helmet giving him an unfair advantage.

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww46/knights-racing/Michigan/DSC_4062.jpg

-At least the Dodge can forge a small river...

http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww46/knights-racing/Michigan/DSC_4632.jpg

-Not having a jack in the line waiting for the autocross when it starts raining, but having a big man named Adam, and watching Tu Graz look on in disbelief(Your car doesn't have to be light to pick it up, you just need a bigger man).

Adam is wearing the Ron Jon shirt
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs044.snc1/4409_92614356227_534771227_2583520_8177824_n.jpg

-Having the '09 team leader plan out a detailed murder of the "carburetor kid" complete with alibi, murder weapons, and how to dispose of the body, all taking place around hour thirty of the "I'm not leaving this shop till the car is finished" workday.

-Bragging about how you are building a race car while at school, but not bringing up the GPA.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Hey UCF, can I come visit you guys while I am home for the summer?

Oh and Toyota minivans are the fastest. Dodges do great burnouts on gravel. But Toyotas light em up from a 2nd gear roll, on asphalt.

[coastertrav]

Sure thing.

I'll be going out of town tonight (8/6), but returning Wednesday (8/12), but you are more then welcome to stop by the shop when I get back.

[TorqueWrench]

I guess I will throw in some summer ones:

Realizing that you haven't gone to bed before 4:30AM for the last week because your DOEs have been finishing and you want to know what the outcome is before going to sleep.

Realizing you have spent your "days off" from work as days to be in the shop and working on designs while school isn't getting in the way.

[Andy K]

- buying a used trailer 3 weeks before comp, have a fender fall off on the way to comp at 2am (2 hours into the 10 hour trip), finding it and realizing that as it was flapping around it had sliced the tire almost through the belts and having a spare that was marginally better.

- 5 consecutive 20-hr days of sanding, painting, sanding, painting, gel coat, fibreglass, bagging, sanding, painting and letting the paint dry in the trailer on the way to comp.

- Confirming that a Dodge Caravan with 500 miles on the odo consistently shifts at 5500 rpm throughout the entire week.

[Dsenechal]

Originally posted by Mikey Antonakakis:
Hey UCF, can I come visit you guys while I am home for the summer?

Oh and Toyota minivans are the fastest. Dodges do great burnouts on gravel. But Toyotas light em up from a 2nd gear roll, on asphalt.

Indeed, We had 70 mph wheel speed burnouts up in Michigan this year on the Toyota Minivan!

[Moke]

We like to play rental car games like:

Engine vs Handbrake
1st gear vs Radio

and my fav was back of rental car vs front of rental truck

[STAATSWANN]

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs006.snc1/2825_1124931371063_1460508559_325484_391392_n.jpg

[Sam. B.]

The fact that I got in my lungs more carbone fiber than a football player got creatine in is muscle.

[The Neck]

Memories of being a first-year team member:

-Working in the shop for 20 hours as a freshman to turn down a huuugge part, only to finish at 2:00am, lose track of measurements, and take one unnecessary pass at 2:02 to epically bone the part as a whole.
-boning so many parts as a freshman that upperclassmen asked me to stop...
-Being offered the Sanding and Polishing group leader position because my part making was so bad.
-getting ambitious to finish a part and breaking off a drill bit inside of it.
-screaming mills
-screaming lathes
-screaming upperclassmen
-angry italian project managers
-racing teammates to and from every hardware store, eatery, and group outing, for no apparent reason other than to win.
-waking up at 6AM on Saturdays and Sundays, at my own pleasure and will, just to watch 2-3 upperclassmen test and tune the car.


RIT Formula SAE

[woodsy96]

Threads like this

http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/t...600868/m/13010166931 (http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/412600868/m/13010166931)

[Pennyman]

Originally posted by woodsy96:
Threads like this

http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/t...600868/m/13010166931 (http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/412600868/m/13010166931)

OMG...

[Stocky Fast 1]

I couldn't tell if that thread was a joke or not.

[coastertrav]

I love SAE because of the feeling I get after blasting the car up the road by the shop.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/coastertrav/FSAE/DSC_2901.jpg

^that feeling^

[Corey H]

Originally posted by coastertrav:
-Not having our own bathroom at the shop but getting very good at breaking into the Aero lab next door.

We just use baja's sink...the bajano



-Rolling your eyes at the other engineering clubs and their projects. (SWE? Really? They have a scrapbook competition)
+1


-Being the club in the homecoming parade that no one recognizes, but everyone remembers because of the sweet burnout at the judges station.



being the club that does burn outs on the fresh concrete on the mall during homecoming and having to write an official apology to the school.


being the club that "races" to the line up for homecoming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Ce_UxzWto

and then gets waved in to traffic after the parade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCqeckVHEsM

[Scrappy]

wow coastertrav, im not sure about your school, but if a faculty member or someone of authority from my school saw a picture like that, the risk management and insurance people would have a field day ripping us a new one.

This is a link to my hands down favorite thread of all time.

http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/t...48/m/38010399141/p/1 (http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/125607348/m/38010399141/p/1)

The kid was so embarassed that he changed his username, and the title of the thread to ...

Read the whole thing, people just straight tear him a new one, making fun of his myspace info and the whole nine yards. Every powertrain guy can get a good laugh out of the kid's logic too.

[coastertrav]

As far as I know that picture was taken on a windy day after I was pushed down the road by some other team members...

[Cary]

Naps on the creeper

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/ckravets/n6228717_37051478_8236.jpg

[Rotary Sprocket]

-Using tap magic as a cologne before you head out to the bars

-the shop supervisor threatening to shut down every machine in the shop (at least once a week)

-disposing of magnesium chips (the fun way)

-3 a.m. burnouts on campus to check if you actually fixed your transmission problem.

-the cops blaring the stars wars theme through their loud speakers as they came to see what we were up to.

[coastertrav]

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/coastertrav/FSAE/DSC_1389.jpg

Thats why

[Stocky Fast 1]

Originally posted by Rotary Sprocket:
-Using tap magic as a cologne before you head out to the bars

-the shop supervisor threatening to shut down every machine in the shop (at least once a week)

-disposing of magnesium chips (the fun way)

-3 a.m. burnouts on campus to check if you actually fixed your transmission problem.

-the cops blaring the stars wars theme through their loud speakers as they came to see what we were up to.

I started reading this thinking, wow, this sounds a lot like some of the things we've done at our school. Then I read the last one and realized, yep, that's us.

[J_poo]

Formula is all assholes, but I'm fucked because nobody else will hangout with me

three times the time
three times the money
three times the sophistication
of any SAE project
-anonymous

"think with you dipstick jimmy" whack

"hit with a wrench, oh it didn't work? must be metric"

[StevenWebb]

showing up for a test 10 minutes late, i look through my bag to find verniers, a square, a scribe, drillbits, safety goggles, an angle grider disk, but no pen

[Shashi]

Attending a Claude seminar with my seat sponsored!!!

Pretty much the best thing in 2 years of FS!

[Adam Vaughan]

Spinning out just after the finish line, and having no one believe that it was actually unintentional...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jal3sukCQjQ

[vreihen]

Originally posted by Adam Vaughan:
Spinning out just after the finish line, and having no one believe that it was actually unintentional...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jal3sukCQjQ

From the lead-up, I was expecting to see something like this: http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4gN9cgotvs

Nice save after the finish, BTW.....

[Pennyman]

No the specs aren't Z87 rated..

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/3518/alhair.jpg

[coastertrav]

I like that so much...

[The AFX Master]

Originally posted by Shashi:
Attending a Claude seminar with my seat sponsored!!!

Pretty much the best thing in 2 years of FS!

I did that TWICE!!!! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Pennyman:
No the specs aren't Z87 rated..

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/3518/alhair.jpg
I wish I could say I've never done that before ahhahah

[coastertrav]

Oh, reminds me.

I love SAE because I just noticed all the shops have a similar stain on the wall behind the lathe.

[overdrive535]

Good gravy, look at that chunk of Al...that would make a dent if it let loose...

[Pennyman]

Originally posted by overdrive535:
Good gravy, look at that chunk of Al...that would make a dent if it let loose...

I had a live center stuck in the other side if it makes you feel any better.

It started out as a rectangle too...had to use a 4 jaw to get a section knocked down, then switched to the 3 jaw for the rest. Fun.

[overdrive535]

couldn't find round stock?
Or did you save some money?

[brettd]

Spraying CRC/WD40/some kind of lubricant on the concrete floor to improve the handling (skids) of the team pushbike. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Waigan]

Originally posted by Mikey Antonakakis:
-finding metal in my clothes
-finding metal in my hair
-finding metal in my skin


Finding metal in my hair the next morning during a hair cut and jamming the barber's ELECTRIC clippers.

[kapps]

Originally posted by brettd:
Spraying CRC/WD40/some kind of lubricant on the concrete floor to improve the handling (skids) of the team pushbike. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

WD-40 is too scarce a commodity to use like that.

I love the smell of WD-40 vaporizing on a quickly diminishing chunk of aluminum that will soon be called an upright or hub... and the smoke trail it leaves as the chips go flying.

[coastertrav]

I love that feeling you get when you first hear that the tubing has just come in.

<- currently has that feeling.

[Whis]

Machining Plastic.

Lathe? Too fast? Too big of a cut? What are those?!?!? Just do it!

Mill? 300 rpm? 20 ipm? 1/4 pass? Nice, big old plastic chips.

Sure wish you could make a car outta the stuff.

Whis
ISU

[poe21]

Hearing somebody say, "I can do that in 10 minutes", and knowing that it will not get done for 10 weeks.

Suddenly becoming an automotive MacGyver after your first failed visit to tech inspection.

[JamesWolak]

Originally posted by poe21:
Hearing somebody say, "I can do that in 10 minutes", and knowing that it will not get done for 10 weeks.

Suddenly becoming an automotive MacGyver after your first failed visit to tech inspection.


Ohh god how true is that

[DART-CG]

Performing major and minor intelligent bicycle tests on the test track while the racecar is under maintenance like fastest time around FSAE track or fastest time around the skid pad

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by JamesWolak:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by poe21:
Hearing somebody say, "I can do that in 10 minutes", and knowing that it will not get done for 10 weeks.

Suddenly becoming an automotive MacGyver after your first failed visit to tech inspection.


Ohh god how true is that </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

So true


As for my favorite things... this:
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs202.snc1/6928_659373313432_124249_38304799_7425578_n.jpg
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs202.snc1/6928_659373308442_124249_38304798_4407948_n.jpg

I have no idea how those tire marks got there... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Sooner_Electrical]

After a long break I have re discovered the hilarity of the FSAE forums and decided to contribute some of my sweet sweet love of FSAE.

- being known by you fellow class mates and the guy that shows up for tests, being hated when you set the curve for said tests, but ultimately ending up with a C in the class do to lack of homework/project completions.
- Creating various games or devices to pass the time while waiting for things to dry/bake (such as red bull cannons, pneumatic ping pong ball machine gun, monster pogo stick, soccer 4 square, ect) and the various trips to the hospital caused by said games/devices.
- Finishing other groups capstone projects because you need the machines and it is much faster than letting them waste several days screwing things up.
- Setting up a course in a local church parking lot for "driver training" a dark an rainy night. Driving said course for hours in out personal cars, having the cops show up as we are finishing up the "who can do a 360 through the two cones the best" competition.
- Cop letting you go because they have never seen someone set up an actual course before and was a welcome change from the usual drifters/burn outs they normally come across at said church at 3am.

And a few lingering affects of my FSAE addiction now that I am a "productive" member of society.

- missing working with people that were not morons and actually completed tasks... instead of having meetings to discuss possible ways to complete a task.
- Seriously looking for a used CNC machine on a regular basis.
- Purchasing a Lotus Elise as my first post grad car even though it is not at all practical as a daily driver and there is only one certified lotus mechanic within 250 miles because it is just that awesome.
- having a girl friend that doesn't hate you (at times, somethings never change! :-) or at all

I must say I don't regret any part of my FSAE experience at all and learned way more from this project that I did from all my classes combined, especially used knowledge.

Glad to see the shenanigans is alive and well.

[AxelRipper]

driver training... kinda... http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs144.snc1/5330_1216442688326_1146626738_30667824_189309_n.jp g

[Kevin Dunn]

Originally posted by poe21:
Hearing somebody say, "I can do that in 10 minutes", and knowing that it will not get done for 10 weeks.

Suddenly becoming an automotive MacGyver after your first failed visit to tech inspection.

LMAO. Jamie, I'm pretty sure we're thinking of the same person as soon as I read that...

[Mikey Antonakakis]

- being known by you fellow class mates and the guy that shows up for tests, being hated when you set the curve for said tests, but ultimately ending up with a C in the class do to lack of homework/project completions.


how true. Well.. I don't always set a curve, but occasionally :P

[coastertrav]

- being known by you fellow class mates and the guy that shows up for tests, being hated when you set the curve for said tests, but ultimately ending up with a C in the class do to lack of homework/project completions.


I thought you were speaking directly about me for a second. I'm rocking a C in a certain class, due to no homework/quiz grades, but just got a 97 on the last test after not being there for the past six classes. I turned in my test, and the professor asked me how I thought I did and I told him that I thought I did really well. He then told me that he doubted it due to my attendance, but later told me that he owed me an apology while handing the tests back out.


I love SAE because of the sinking feeling you get randomly throughout the semester when you start to feel overcome by classes, the car is behind, and you start noticing major design flaws leading to a small mental breakdown, but then calling the previous team leader and have him laugh at you saying "I TOLD YOU!!!"

[DART-CG]

I must say I don't regret any part of my FSAE experience at all and learned way more from this project that I did from all my classes combined, especially used knowledge.


Oh yeah, this one is so damn right http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
And the Lotus Elise project will hopefully be fulfilled by me in less than 12 month. Dreaming of it for more than a decade now. Which one do you possess, series 1 or 2? Which engine and any modifications? Any complaints? Which tires?

[Jon Oneill]

- Dyno tuning the car 5 days before comp.

- Falling asleep during a Dyno run and not having anyone else notice for a good 5 minutes even though the car was at 3/4 throttle. I guess thats what happens when you've been awake for 58hrs.

- Not looking at the clock for a while and realising 18hrs have passed since you last looked.

- Knowing the program only exists because of the teams determination.

- Knowing we do more for the Uni than most staff members and we pay to do it.

- Being the first port of call for all things CAD related for every Engineering student and staff member

- Being the first port of call for anyone when a fabrication project is being run by any faculty. I'm talking to you Industrial Design students.

- Walking into 1/2 hour job interviews and not leaving for 1/1/2 hours after talking about nothing but your FSAE involvement.

- Having students offer you $$ to help build there projects and having to turn them down purely because you dont have the time.

- Listening to your Ipod through so many times that 120 Gb is no where near enough music.

[Brian S]

Originally posted by JonJon:
- Dyno tuning the car 5 days before comp.


I think we have you beat. Driving the car on the dyno at 1am, then driving the truck to California at 10am.

[Jon Oneill]

- Walking into class late and stinking out the entire room with Petrol after getting the car running.

- Much the same responce with resin & Acetone

[coastertrav]

The following conversation (taking place in Introduction to Digital Media, a class Matt and I were taking to boost the GPA).

Matt (with a large wet spot down his left leg): Dude, I just spilled about a gallon of gasoli-

Girl two rows in front of us: OH MY GOD! DOES ANYONE ELSE SMELL GAS!?!?

Matt: Yeah, I smell it too!

(Small panic in the group of people a few rows in front of us)

Matt (to me quietly): So, as I was saying, I just sprayed gas all over myself, but was already running late.

Matt and myself would then periodically break into small fits of laughter throughout the rest of the class as the people around us looked around nervously for the source of the gasoline smell.

[poe21]

Showing up for an in class presentation with black hands because you got a little carried away just tightening a few nuts on one of the old cars.

[poe21]

Taking my wife with us to Michigan as team Mom to do all the cooking. Free trip for her, and good food for us. Plus she's smarter than the rest of us, so if worse comes to worse, ask the CFD PhD student.

[TorqueWrench]

Originally posted by Brian S:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by JonJon:
- Dyno tuning the car 5 days before comp.


I think we have you beat. Driving the car on the dyno at 1am, then driving the truck to California at 10am. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

UB has you both beat. Tuning the engine in the pits of VIR and getting a garbage can and water pump ready in case the dyno was needed.

[Muad'Dib]

Originally posted by TorqueWrench:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Brian S:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by JonJon:
- Dyno tuning the car 5 days before comp.


I think we have you beat. Driving the car on the dyno at 1am, then driving the truck to California at 10am. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

UB has you both beat. Tuning the engine in the pits of VIR and getting a garbage can and water pump ready in case the dyno was needed. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Although it doesn't involve a dyno, or my team I liked this story that I heard last year for Villanova. The first time their car moved was at the brake test. The first time it shifted was during enduro, which they finished. I was impressed.

[The AFX Master]

Our first car on 2002 finished enduro.. and was driven for the first time by the then drivers on THAT enduro... (other than the very firsts at Skidpad, accel and AutoX)

And also we won Fuel Economy, but did not get any points for endurance because we were slooooow.

[Sooner_Electrical]

And the Lotus Elise project will hopefully be fulfilled by me in less than 12 month. Dreaming of it for more than a decade now. Which one do you possess, series 1 or 2? Which engine and any modifications? Any complaints? Which tires?

From a pure driving standpoint it rivals anything I have ever driven, including our 07 which was my favorite and dominating California comp right up until it blew up in a ball of fire :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnoOJXOudEw

I would strongly recommend having a backup car for daily driving even if it is just an old beat up civic that is only running because of all the JB welding skills you learned from FSAE (like I have).

I have a series 2 with the regular NA 2ZZ-GE engine with stage 2 exhaust. It has the touring package and a bunch of other stuff adding 22lbs but making it overall much more comfy. I have been running the stock ADVAN Neova AD07's but i just bought the Pilot Sport A/S Plus's because I read somewhere that if the AD07's get below 14deg F (which in okla it occasionally does) they are ruined.

I am currently writing a review for a car website about the Elise that I can send you the link when it gets posted.

Another thing I loved about FSAE:
- Going into the year having load of trouble passing sound tech in '05, making the muffler a priority and creating "Muff battle '06" competition only to barley pass sound tech and with a heavy muffler. Buying an expensive/awesome muffler all subsequent years....

[Will M]

Originally posted by JonJon:
- Knowing the program only exists because of the teams determination.


I know how that feels.

[With_the_Flow]

Finding out there's an environmental health and safety inspection in a week.
Needing the whole week to get to code.

[woodsy96]

Originally posted by With_the_Flow:
Finding out there's an environmental health and safety inspection in a week.
Needing the whole week to get to code.

We got done with one of them last year. Except we didn't get a weeks notice, they wandered into the shop to investigate why noone emerged for the fire drill. After discovering some dodgy electronics, they audited our whole workshop and wrote a 12 page report on how everything was going to kill everyone in the workshop the day after tommorow.

Another fav. of FSAE is the accident book in the first aid box.

Cause: Punched lathe. Reccomendation: New Lathe
Cause: Cut hand on chassis. Reccomendation: New Lathe.
Cause: Cut hand on sheet metal. Reccomendation: Permanent boo-boo kisser.

etc.

[Shashi]

Showing up for an in class presentation with black hands because you got a little carried away just tightening a few nuts on one of the old cars.

Ahhh...I miss that feeling!

[coastertrav]

Originally posted by woodsy96:

We got done with one of them last year. Except we didn't get a weeks notice, they wandered into the shop to investigate why noone emerged for the fire drill. After discovering some dodgy electronics, they audited our whole workshop and wrote a 12 page report on how everything was going to kill everyone in the workshop the day after tommorow.

Another fav. of FSAE is the accident book in the first aid box.

Cause: Punched lathe. Reccomendation: New Lathe
Cause: Cut hand on chassis. Reccomendation: New Lathe.
Cause: Cut hand on sheet metal. Reccomendation: Permanent boo-boo kisser.

etc.

We had a health and safety person come out the other day when they were getting rid of all our old oil. The place was so bad that she wanted to use it as a workshop for some of her students, and they are going to reorganize the entire shop and get us all new storage.

While walking through the shop the health and safety person almost fell when she tripped on the undertray, then a smart remark was made under our breath on why women are not allowed in the shop.

[Trevor]

Debating with other team members on the finer points of sleeping in chairs, formula/baja cars, on the floor/desks (you can never oversleep your alarm when the lab you're sleeping in opens at 7 the next morning!)http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[MalcolmG]

on that note:
* learning that if you want to have a reasonably short sleep (1-2 hours) then you should sleep somewhere uncomfortable.
* having to find increasingly more uncomfortable places to sleep, as after 4 years of punishment you're pretty happy to have an 8 hour sleep lying across 4 chairs you've lined up in front of a desk.

[Trevor]

Originally posted by MalcolmG:
on that note:
* learning that if you want to have a reasonably short sleep (1-2 hours) then you should sleep somewhere uncomfortable.
* having to find increasingly more uncomfortable places to sleep, as after 4 years of punishment you're pretty happy to have an 8 hour sleep lying across 4 chairs you've lined up in front of a desk.

Haha. Sometimes the most uncomfortable place to sleep is in class http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[kapps]

Taking a sharpie and writing "FAG" on other SAE members fingernails when they sleep in class. Then waiting 2 hours until they finally realize what happened http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Moke]

Originally posted by MalcolmG:
on that note:
* learning that if you want to have a reasonably short sleep (1-2 hours) then you should sleep somewhere uncomfortable.
* having to find increasingly more uncomfortable places to sleep, as after 4 years of punishment you're pretty happy to have an 8 hour sleep lying across 4 chairs you've lined up in front of a desk.

Wait a minute, what are you doing sleeping for 8 hours?

[MalcolmG]

can't help it, my willpower to get up no longer exceeds my body's desire to keep me sleeping

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Moke:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by MalcolmG:
on that note:
* learning that if you want to have a reasonably short sleep (1-2 hours) then you should sleep somewhere uncomfortable.
* having to find increasingly more uncomfortable places to sleep, as after 4 years of punishment you're pretty happy to have an 8 hour sleep lying across 4 chairs you've lined up in front of a desk.

Wait a minute, what are you doing sleeping for 8 hours? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
+1

[Drew Price]

The groomsmen for my wedding next year will be made up of:

Best man: My brother, and former engine lead for Cal Poly SLO.
Groomsman 1: Our engine lead (grad 2 years ago)
Groomsman 2: Our engine lead
Groomsman 3: Our composites lead
Groomsman 4: Our manufacturing lead


One of my fiancee's cousins and a bridesmaid is an ME grad from UW Madison, so engineering has majority in the wedding party.

Fiancee is a theatre major, and is worried (rightly so) that the conversation at the wedding party table will be all about ..... cars.



Best,
Drew

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by Drew Price:
The groomsmen for my wedding next year will be made up of:

Best man: My brother, and former engine lead for Cal Poly SLO.
Groomsman 1: Our engine lead (grad 2 years ago)
Groomsman 2: Our engine lead
Groomsman 3: Our composites lead
Groomsman 4: Our manufacturing lead


One of my fiancee's cousins and a bridesmaid is an ME grad from UW Madison, so engineering has majority in the wedding party.

Fiancee is a theatre major, and is worried (rightly so) that the conversation at the wedding party table will be all about ..... cars.



Best,
Drew
That sounds like a fun wedding to me, haha. MechEs know how to party!

[coastertrav]

Found another...

Realizing that my thumb knuckle is 20.001mm after sticking it cleanly through our restrictor, and the resulting moment of panic the moment after.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by coastertrav:
Found another...

Realizing that my thumb knuckle is 20.001mm after sticking it cleanly through our restrictor, and the resulting moment of panic the moment after.
I've definitely done that.

[Thrainer]

Ah, those were the days...

http://www.amzracing.ch/amz/files/amz244.jpg

[Corey H]

Realizing your lease is up at the beginning of June and shortly after discovering that the building our shop is in has a locker room with shower that only a very few people every use.

Getting the key for said shower, hanging a hammock in the SAE office, and legitimately living in the shop for a month...rent free http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[coastertrav]

Funny, we happen to have a hammock in our office as well. Great for catching a nap in between classes.

[t21jj]

We also had a couch that was great for sleeping on in our office. I can say that I've slept on it several times. The building we are in also had a shower in the basement several years ago, I never used it but I know guys on the team that did. It was removed when some grad student left the window open in the winter and the pipes froze.

[Moke]

I'll go one better and say that a few years back we literally had mattresses amongst the storage area next to our workshop and would have the same 4-5 people every night sleeping there, swelling to 10+ at peak times. There was a shower upstairs which was great, we rigged a washing machine up so all bases were covered. Need the lathe but someone on it? Take a nap or 2am shower and get a 3rd wind.

But then we got told we can't sleep in the workshop http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif So we moved our beds into the trailer outside the workshop door http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Adambomb]

Originally posted by t21jj:
We also had a couch that was great for sleeping on in our office. I can say that I've slept on it several times. The building we are in also had a shower in the basement several years ago, I never used it but I know guys on the team that did. It was removed when some grad student left the window open in the winter and the pipes froze.

Yes. That's still the best "sleeping couch" I've ever slept on. Doesn't matter how much time you spend on it, you always wake up ready to go again. Bummer on the shower too, although the university has already expressed deep concern that they don't want us living in the shop. We have a bit of a temporary solution, sort of a pain in the butt, but it should get the job done. The shower itself, including the curtain are still there, just no faucet. However, there is a big utility hydrant for filling mop buckets with a threaded fitting across the room...just hook up a garden hose with a spray head and run it into the shower!

Other things I like about formula:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI> Discovering the entrance to the top secret forbidden steam tunnel has an unlocked access point very close to the lab
<LI> Getting reimbursed for $1800 worth of parts purchases, only to have to go around and spend it on more parts...despite the fact that my personal project car has been down for over 2 years because I can't scrape together $1000 for a new clutch/flywheel/bellhousing (not that I would have time to do anything with said parts anyway) http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif
[/list]

[t21jj]

Originally posted by Adambomb:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by t21jj:
We also had a couch that was great for sleeping on in our office. I can say that I've slept on it several times. The building we are in also had a shower in the basement several years ago, I never used it but I know guys on the team that did. It was removed when some grad student left the window open in the winter and the pipes froze.

Yes. That's still the best "sleeping couch" I've ever slept on. Doesn't matter how much time you spend on it, you always wake up ready to go again. Bummer on the shower too, although the university has already expressed deep concern that they don't want us living in the shop. We have a bit of a temporary solution, sort of a pain in the butt, but it should get the job done. The shower itself, including the curtain are still there, just no faucet. However, there is a big utility hydrant for filling mop buckets with a threaded fitting across the room...just hook up a garden hose with a spray head and run it into the shower!

Other things I like about formula:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI> Discovering the entrance to the top secret forbidden steam tunnel has an unlocked access point very close to the lab
<LI> Getting reimbursed for $1800 worth of parts purchases, only to have to go around and spend it on more parts...despite the fact that my personal project car has been down for over 2 years because I can't scrape together $1000 for a new clutch/flywheel/bellhousing (not that I would have time to do anything with said parts anyway) http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif
[/list] </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Waking up in the middle of the night on said couch to find your legs burning due to the broken office heater behind the couch.

Working on the Whole Car CAD model in the office before looking down and realizing that your standing in a pool of water from the other borken heater on the office.

Opening the windows in the dead of winter to combat the broken heaters that run full bore 24x7 during the fall and winter. Also considering turning the AC on in the winter to combat the heaters.

[kapps]

We've got a similar, yet completely opposite problem right now... For the past month, our A/C is out in the shop area (office is still good thank goodness). We've been running the exhaust fans 24/7 to keep it to a bearable 85 degrees during the day. It works up a good sweat when you don't realize how long you've been cranking on the mill or lathe. This global warming this is really getting annoying, 90 degree days at the end of October, really?!?!?!

[Mazur]

It's already freezing in Phoenix, AZ http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[coastertrav]

Not in Orlando.

We had a few hints of 60 degree days here, but it is still steadily too hot for anything greater than shorts and a t-shirt.

[Adambomb]

Originally posted by t21jj:
Opening the windows in the dead of winter to combat the broken heaters that run full bore 24x7 during the fall and winter. Also <STRIKE>considering</STRIKE> turning the AC on in the winter to combat the heaters.

Yeah, we just broke down and turned on the AC several times. Partially because the AC unit is the only thing with a thermostat, so it is actually possible to maintain a reasonable temperature. That is, until we have a freshman design those thermostatically controlled window-opening servo motors we keep talking about. Or maintenance fixes the radiators, which I don't see happening any time soon.

[BStoney]

The best part about all of this, is the fact that I love reading it over and over again, even 2+ years after my last competition and graduating...

Good luck fellas

[RyMan]

The small fetish for abrasive soap that I have developed.

[lithiumdeuteride]

Stains on my t-shirts, the smell of which still reminds me of the garage.

[coastertrav]

Building cheater Baja motors with spare, non running Baja motors.

Specs of the one from today.

Ring endgap: almost none
Material taken of head to "freshen up": .040"
Material taken off block to "freshen up": .010:
Ported head
Recessed valves
Reground cam
Raised rev limiter
Ignition advanced to 38*

The giggling in the shop when we bench started it was impressive, and we are going back out there tomorrow to put it in an old car without Baja knowing.

[Welfares]

going to get your hair cut and giving the clippers a hard time because your hair is full of aluminium swarth and epoxy glue.

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Whenever I run into someone that's not in SAE, if there's nothing urgent to talk about, the first question is invariably "...so how's the car going?"

[Stocky Fast 1]

Originally posted by Adambomb:

Other things I like about formula:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI> Discovering the entrance to the top secret forbidden steam tunnel has an unlocked access point very close to the lab
<LI> Getting reimbursed for $1800 worth of parts purchases, only to have to go around and spend it on more parts...despite the fact that my personal project car has been down for over 2 years because I can't scrape together $1000 for a new clutch/flywheel/bellhousing (not that I would have time to do anything with said parts anyway) http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif
[/list]

The effort to map said tunnels through repeated visits by previous team members to aid in future exploration and I don't bother with reimbursment anymore, lol.

[Pennyman]

Originally posted by Mikey Antonakakis:
Whenever I run into someone that's not in SAE, if there's nothing urgent to talk about, the first question is invariably "...so how's the car going?"

...or "you think that chick is an engineer?"

[Big Mo]

Originally posted by coastertrav:
Building cheater Baja motors with spare, non running Baja motors.

The giggling in the shop when we bench started it was impressive, and we are going back out there tomorrow to put it in an old car without Baja knowing.

Challenge the baja guys to a drag race with one of the old chassis with the "special" engine. There's a potential to make money on that.....

They bet knowing that their new baja should be lighter and faster....

the money would probably go to formula parts anyway, though.

[DanVaan]

Having a member of our team win the civil engineering popsicle bridge contest to prove that we are better, so that we can spend the prize money on a party for the whole team.
oh yeah, and he is an electrical engineer

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Originally posted by DanVaan:
Having a member of our team win the civil engineering popsicle bridge contest to prove that we are better, so that we can spend the prize money on a party for the whole team.
oh yeah, and he is an electrical engineer
I have to try that...

[Adambomb]

Originally posted by DanVaan:
Having a member of our team win the civil engineering popsicle bridge contest to prove that we are better, so that we can spend the prize money on a party for the whole team.
oh yeah, and he is an electrical engineer

We considered doing that with the steel bridge guys after they started getting all high and mighty while we were fighting for money from the college of engineering. They didn't think we needed corner weight scales (they suggested bathroom scales), and suggested we use $48/gallon red industrial paint to paint our trailer. They also didn't believe that we did anything over the summer.