After a brief wait for some more 50x25 box section (due to the fact that I cut up the wrong bit...) the base is nearing completion!  The two rectangles have been tacked together, and the two long bits (technical term!) will be bolted on.  This mean that I'll be able to disassemble it and hopefully managed to get it through the door.  The UJ then bolts onto the plate, and it should start to look somewhere near its final form.

The main frame is complete!  After a 3 hour session of careful positioning and welding it's finally assembled, which means I can concentrate on getting the base done - then I might be getting somewhere.  As per usual with any sort of welding, I managed to burn myself (it stays hot for so long!) but this time I managed to melt a hole in it.  I suppose there's a first time for everything!  I also managed to use almost every tool in the workshop, which I'm quite impressed with.

 

Had a cracking session yesterday!  The UJ has been drilled to allow it to be attached to the base, and I've made the plate that the main frame will attach to.  It's made from two 200mm lengths of 50mm wide steel plate welded together and ground down.  Now I just need to weld the supports to it! (Potentially easier said than done...).  Also, I've decided that I'm not going to be able to get the hydraulics in and sorted by the finish date, so instead I'm going to use a couple of electric actuators to show what movement would be available.  It's not an ideal solution, but at least it will move!

And here are the rest of the pictures.  

Sorry about the break, I've been swamped under a pile of paperwork due to a fairly major redesign I've been pursuing.  To this end, I've now got a new UJ design (which happily is only a simple mod to the one I've already got) and a new frame.  My Blue Peter-esque model isn't the best, but hopefully it gets the idea across.  One cylinder goes straight from the ground to the cockpit, the other from the UJ itself.  This means that they are completely independent which solves the problem of them trying to fight each other whilst in motion.

The new frame design (I'll upload some pics tomorrow) now has the UJ on the ground, with supports spreading out from it to the four corners of the frame under the cockpit.  This frame now has a horizontal extension for the roll cylinder to connect to.  

However, there is a minor issue.  To allow sufficient time for testing and evaluation, I now have six (!!!!) weeks to finish the project.  Finito.  Done.  Could be a challenge :P.  Because of this, I'm planning on using a pair of electronic actuators to provide a degree of movement to show what will be possible with hydraulics.

Now that I'm diving head first into the manufacture process I'll be able to keep you updated regularly as the beast slowly nears completion!

More pictures to follow...

I admit, it would have probably been easier to cut the steel plate for the U-joint to size and weld it together.  But then I wouldn't have had the chance to flail around with an oxy-acetylene torch that sounded like a jet taking off, and a spanner the size of my arm.  :D  Once the brackets had been bent to shape, I machined 4 brass spacers on the large (and slightly menacing) eastern bloc lathe.  Once I'd finished battling it's intrinsic design flaws, I considered delicately assembling the U-joint.  I then remembered that I had a physics paper to do for tomorrow, so I hit the pins repeatedly with a hammer until they went in.  Job done.

It's been a little while since the last update, so here's what's been happening.  I started building the U-joint - this will take almost all of the weight of the cockpit so it's quite important I get it right!  I've also been fighting my way through a maelstrom of paperwork trying to work out how I'm going to attach the U-joint to the cockpit frame, and to the base itself.  I am yet to have a revelation!