Drill-Powered Bicycle
Goals
Design and manufacture a vehicle, powered only by a 20V cordless drill
Compete in an endurance race where the driver and vehicle circle a 1,000 ft racecourse with 24 ft of elevation gain as many times as possible in 30 minutes
My Contributions
As the manufacturing engineer on my team, I was responsible for fabricating all custom components for the bicycle
Cut, cleaned, drilled, and MIG welded square and round tubing to create frame; bored round tubing to press fit bicycle head tube bearings; ground down welds and painted frame (4)
Waterjet cut steel and aluminum plates to create chainring adaptor, drill plate, back wheel dropout plates (2,1,3)
Created pillow blocks to support drive shaft by cutting aluminum bar stock on a mill; drilled and bored holes for bearings to be press fit; drilled and hand-tapped fastener holes (5)
Assisted using mill and lathe to modify existing sprocket and shaft to fit in drill chuck and bike chain (6,7)
Designed frame and modified components in SolidWorks; created engineering drawings to communicate with machine shop staff
Communicated with vendors to purchase metals
Served as bicycle rider on race day and during testing
Results
Completed 11.75 laps of endurance course in 20 minutes using one drill battery
Placed 3rd out of 15 teams
