2K8!!!

The New Year is upon us, and true to form we're working hard to hit the ground running this week and on into our annual fabrication quarter...our finish date is set for St. Patrick's Day 2K8. We'll celebrate with a little Guinness and of course, those lovely finals. It's always hard to remember that we came to Davis to do some fancy book learnin' on top of making cool shit.

We've got loads to accomplish and lots of practice to break into so let's get on it people and ram it home!

ASCE Student Conferences 2008

A list of all Regional ASCE/AISC Conferences is shown here.

http://content.asce.org/student/conferences.html

Looks like ASCE has finally updated their student section on their site.

Possible trips for us: Iowa City, IA -- Orlando, FL -- Beaumont, TX -- Easton, PA -- Baton Rouge, LA...any advanced offering for lodging or knowledge exchange would be appreciated!!! All who wish to venture to Davis, CA can sleep at Matt's house, no worries about a hotel or a rental car within the city, all taken care of if you get in touch with Chrome Ollie.

Oh, Oh wait, dude check this out! Lamar University is hosting the Tex-Mex and it has been pushed all the way back to January 26th!!! That's like one more week of preparation than usual. Woohoo! Awesome! Do we really need to say we'll be rooting for down there?







GO AGS!

Grrrrrrr!

Okay, so half of our DK stock is pinch bent near the ends in a pretty shitty way. We'll have to send some of this back and get some straighter stuff asap. Good news is Chris and Jessica are downright annihilating the connection blanks. We've also found a way to cut about 20% of the DK connection weight without sacrificing integrity...AND we may get to use the EDM machine for possible dovetail scenarios (if crash program is needed). Score one for the rounded doves (if we need them).

(if we need them)....

(if we need them).... (please dear God no! we won't need them it's okay, this will work, this will work...)

Feliz Navidad de Wisconsin!

The Badgers are ready to rumble on the 7th.

Great job Wisconsin!

http://www.engr.wisc.edu/studentorgs/bridge/

Wow

Big thanks to the lads and lassies in Highland. They got us our big steel order about 20 days faster than we thought it would take. Good call Delicious!

Ink Lizzard

CO alum (2003-2005) Liz Rider has now attained the position of Newsletter Editor for the Sacramento Section Younger Member Forum. Way to go Liz!

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Seen below at YMF's Holiday Party with Philthy Phil who's now at Kiewit (and trying to look interested about civil engineers talking "shop"...Ha!).

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To any younguns out there in the Sac Valley who're outta school - go to these events, and mix it up with your own kind!!! YMF Sac Section Link (sacymf.org)

Rumble, Young Team, Rumble

80% of our steel order has gone through and we look to begin the bulk of our cutting and precision milling come January 2nd, 2008! In the meantime Jessica, Joe and whoever else is about, will continue to push on what dovetail work we have, original estimates forgot that things get doubled when you're working in pairs...so plenty more blanks to get ready...as well as a bunch of groovie aluminum jigs to help us keep things super precisio! Good luck with Finals all, they suck, yes, but you don't get paid without the degree...unless you work the street, and that sucks more so deal with it.

Until hell week freezes over...geez it's kinda cold, maybe it'll freeze over before we think it will.

Latuz out there...keep it real homies.

Chopped Top

We're currently chopping down the OT to do two things:

1. Create a bridge more conducive for constructors of all heights.
2. Help bolt consolodation along the DK rail.

Should help - we'll lose a bit stiffness perhaps, but overall not much is changing.

Creative Adjustments = Good Times!





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Walley's World

Good news from Chrome O alum Jennifer Walley.

On the verge of finishing her M.S. here at UC Davis, Cyco JW has received word she has been accepted into the Materials Science and Engineering Department Ph.D program at Georgia Tech.

Still waiting word from Ohio State's Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D program...

Woo Hoo!

Decemburrrrrr!!!!

While it's finally raining outside, we're as dry and focused in the shop as we've ever been.

Jessica and Matt decided to use the flanges that Joe and Rishi set up for the actual bridge, so we're already off and running. The main steel order from Highland will go in hopefully no later than Wednesday, December 5th. There is a "special" order going into PA, that we'll run off one of our personal Credit Cards because the supplier is still working in the middle ages...great for any true forging blacksmith though!

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When that stuff comes in, we should be set to work with it. In the meantime we'll continue to press in the shop...teaching newbies the ropes as we go, while the returners and those with experience, will work on new pieces for real. We have no Tinius beam as of yet, but the quarter's almost over so no worries. We'll just cut and get all pieces ready in the meantime.

Matt and all those interested will finalize all details for the OT and DK. The mockup of the DK will be completed on a smaller scale, but we need a bit more flange tube to see how we can fab it. The protocol for the DK will be interesting, but perhaps with some precision aluminum pieces, it won't be as painful as we previously thought it would.

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Meeting tonight, as with all Tuesdays in 1203/1205 Bainer. Besides just sitting and talking about jacko shizzo, we'll actually use these late open hours in the Student Shop to go in for an hour and a half to witness some of the basic mill, lathe, saw, and plasma cutting operations. Should be fun so come one come all!

Work for what you get Ags. Ain't nobody going to do it for you. Ain't nobody going to give you a damn thing. It's your Bridge, you can do it!

Oh Venuuuus...

We've come to a consensus on the "Venus" Design.

As of right now we are finalizing all section sizes from our detailed analytical models in SAP2000. We will send out for the steel order to our supplier in Highland this week.

Currently we are fabricating a m0ck up of our keystone to see how workable it is for construction, but rather than over analyze anything, we're pretty sure we'll learn how to deal with it. The key will be getting the bridge done in a quality fashion as soon as possible. Right now things are looking good because we're about 6 weeks ahead of our typical schedule so that'll mean 6 more weeks of practice right?

We're also going to start work on that DK model. We'll have to fabricate some custom aluminum spacers since it's such a major part of the bridge. When we've perfected the DK fabrication sequence we should be good to roll...AND if we find any trouble spots, we could conceivably switch our connection design to a dovetail/pin hybrid to make it work. It should be overly stout, however, as usual.

Construction sequencing can also commence as we've got a construction site that we'll work with some older Chrome Ollie models. The basic thing we'll have to figure out is "barge to builder interaction" and what will be quick vs. what will be too complicated.

It's always a good thing to keep those old models handy for early construction progression...good for the new people to have something in their hands rather than a baptism by fire in March or April.

Things are looking good here. Hope anybody reading is off to a good start too.

No Pain No Gain Aggies.

If you build it...

...it will perform, BUT, can we build this baby?

Decisions

Our last batch of runs from Saturday didn't give us any amazing answers. We'll have to discuss the numbers and talk about the scoring and see what it is we really want our bridge to perform to. 0.15" better stiffness, 15 pounds lighter, or do we want to go for broke on speed...hmmm that loading is the damn juggernaut bitch! We'll just have to talk Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday...

Steel Orders go out the Monday after Thanksgiving...during which time we'll be working on our DK prototype. If we need to change the connection back to doves, we'll know soon enough.

"Don't you know who the f#@! I am?"







Are you a f'n ass?

Round Robin Saturday

AutoCAD, Construction Prep/Practice, Analysis, Welding and General Fabrication, we'll have a Round Robin of Steel Bridge stuff this Saturday.

Start up @ 9:30 a.m. - come earlier if you're a gamer.

GO AGS!

Fab has begun

Hey dudes and dudettes,

Joe has commenced work on the steel racks for the Loft, and Miss Delicious has begun dovetail work. We're off and running. Woo hoo!

Homer says!

Meetingz

Yo yo yo, Chrome-O,

Returners are meeting tonight, Thursday 11/8, in 1203/1205 @ 5:00 p.m. to watch film on the 2005 Steel Bridge run in Orlando. We're worried about being able to bail away from the bridge if a barge gets stuck on the inside. Hopefully Mr. Fleck and Turndawg will be discussing some preliminary fabrication projects to take shape this Friday and next week. We'll need to order material for the DK mock up.

This Saturday, 11/10, we'll have an informal meeting from 10 a.m. to 12 noon to discuss connections, construction and the upcoming month where we'll need to get into it for real. The design will be finished by 11/20 - there will be one last analysis session on 11/17 (vs. Univ. of San Diego for the football team at home by the way) to run the most detailed models of our design choices. We'll determine our fate Sunday 11/18 and then sleep on it for two more nights, then make our final decision on the meeting for Tuesday 11/20, right before Turkey break.

ALSO, FYI --- There will be a second rules quiz next Tuesday 11/13. This one will be written with about 30 or 40 multiple choice/TorF questions. We'll discuss the answers and make sure we're ALL getting a grasp for this years boundaries and regulations...yes...Rules suck, but there as important as making a perfect bridge, in fact, we can't make a perfect bridge without them.

Until then, study hard, midterms suck, but No Pain No Gain.

Reach For the Sky Big Ags!

Matt might get his first cut this Saturday at Urban Body...be there to witness the agony.

USF Bulls

Think all that USF has is an upstart football team looking to prove itself? Wrong! They've got a pretty decent Steel Bridge Team that's still trying to break it's way through the hyper-competitive Southeast Conference en route to Gainesville this season.

Daaaaa Bulls!

USF SBT Google Group here.

LTU

The North Central Conferences' Lawrence Technological University is up and running for 2008.

LTU (2nd Place Lightness - 2007 NSSBC)

11/3 - Causeway Saturday

We're most likely taking this Saturday off. Midterms next week, and we're in a good position analytically so we won't need to press so much. Our best design so far is a very ambitious model. We'll need to brainstorm fabrication techniques before we make the decision to go ahead with it, but it's buildable. A few old school "Penn State" tricks might be in store to make the design easier to build.

After midterms are basically over, we'll go ahead and mock up a connection in the real for the DK and the OT. It should be pretty basic, but without tapered doves, we'll have to be that much more precise and make sure everything is easy to work with assembly-wise...otherwise it isn't worth the effort. The main purpose of the new connections is for speed, not only during assembly, but in the shop. Round one coming soon folks, get fabrication assignments from Miss Delicious aka Jessica Revell.

Go Ags! Swat them Hornets!

Meeting Tonight: 6:10 pm in Chrome O Lab

We'll be discussing Saturday's (10/20) results tonight starting at 6:10 p.m. in 1205 Bainer Hall. Come one, come all, if anybody has any other design ideas, the door is always open for creative thought. Let it be known.