May 6 Team Meeting

This week’s meeting was a five-hour grind that didn’t wrap up until 7 PM — and honestly, the team earned every minute of it.

On the fabrication side, we finalized a new 3D-printed bushing design and are already planning the next iteration as a two-piece assembly to make installation and removal significantly easier. The steering system also got major attention: we designed and cut aluminum brackets on the plasma cutter to prevent lateral movement on the rack and pinion, welded in the gussets for the steering mount, welded in the steering mount itself, and trimmed down the clamps that will secure the intermediate steering shaft between the rack and pinion and the steering wheel bearing. That’s a lot of steering progress in one session.

Brake work is moving too. We knocked out both the first and second iterations of the rear brake caliper mounting bracket on the plasma cutter — two versions in one meeting is exactly the kind of rapid iteration this build needs right now.

Big news on the printer front: our new Bambu H2C is up and running. We ran the full calibration setup and are already scoping out how to take advantage of that oversized build volume. Several large components are on the list, including electronics mounts and covers — parts that would have been difficult or impossible on our previous machines.

Off the shop floor, the team is firing on all cylinders administratively. Winnie sent out the liability insurance application, and Christina, Nina, Winnie, and Nathuli coordinated outreach for vehicle donations and loans — and we already have a response coming in, which is a great sign.

Back Roads took a well-deserved nap at some point during all of this, which honestly tracks. And Pier 76 pizza made its triumphant return, fueling what was yet another late, productive, and genuinely fun Wednesday for the solar car crew.