Mke Makerfest: Nerdy Derby

This coming Saturday, the Milwaukee Makerspace is hosting the 2013 Milwaukee MakerFest.  As part of this, they are holding another Nerdy Derby, open to the public for entries.  I thought it would be fun to build and enter a car this year.

 I grabbed the specs of the standard nerdy derby track  (my good friend Frankie is actually building the track for this year's event and pointed me toward the blueprints).

Having detailed specs, I thought it would be fun to build a car that's completely specific to the track.  A rough sketch of my initial idea... inspired by toy trains / roller coasters from the future...

First I modeled the wheel - this is actually a casing that will fit around a 608 bearing.  I just salvaged a bunch from some old roller blades and have been looking to put them to use.

Dirby track section modeled, Wheels mocked up.

Front view sketch.

Revolved and lofted extrusions...

Fillets ftw.

Added a central bearing holder, designed so the bearing can snap into place.

Mirrored...

The design is looking okay so far... time to make a prototype!

Decided this would be best fit for my UP! printer.

Pieces fresh off the printer, still warm.

Holes tapped.

Bearings and hardware added.

Print came out a bit rough.  I'll rotate the next batch on the bed to hopefully get a better finish on the top of this.  But otherwise, I'm happy with this design.  Let's see how many "modules" I can finish for Saturday!