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IDS 2019-2020

OPERATION GO-KART

Liam Fairbrother and Hayden Dowling-Coulthard

November 7th
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Many have tried.

Many have failed.

We are going to build a Go-Kart from scratch. This means sourcing an engine, creating a
steering system, building a chassis, and making sure that the kart moves. Will we able to
complete this task? To the best of our knowledge others have made attempts during past IDS
conventions, so what makes us different? With this project, we aim to create something that open
doors to potential careers. This is no simple task that we are looking to complete here. There are
plenty of engineering hurdles that we need to bound over in order to complete this project, and
that is something that any potential employers or university scouters would be keeping an eye
open for. We are also looking to challenge ourselves to complete a task that we believe is above
our comfort zone to prove to ourselves that we are capable of doing cool and impressive things.

Careers in engineering are only going up as our civilization focuses on advance into the
future. This project will create a path for both of us to enter this industry. This project isn’t going
to be featuring some brand-new revolutionary idea. We won’t be creating something that will
change the world. However, this will be a gateway into the engineering industry, where there are
limitless possibilities to create new contributions towards the engineering frontier. This is where
the contributions to society will start. We have already done some research into the cost of this
project and have a rough road map of what the timeline of the project will look like. By the end
of winter break, we plan to have most of our materials and components either ordered and on
their way or in our possession. We can start construction of smaller components indoors, as it
will be too cold outside for extended construction. When the weather starts to get warmer near
the second half of February, we will begin construction of the chassis and steering systems. We
plan to have the something resembling the final product by mid-April. This gives us plenty of
time to work out any miscalculations or mishaps in our design. With this extra time, we will be
able to make sure that the product that we have created will live up to the expectations that we
are holding ourselves to by improving on it in any ways that we are able. During the second half
of May through to the presentation date we will be working on an enthralling presentation that
students of all ages will be interested in listening to. Making a project that younger students
might be interested in is something that we are excited to do, as we may be inspiring others to
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take on similar projects, and in turn contributing to society. With these proper plans in place, we
have no doubt that we will be able to stay on task and complete this project on time.

Throughout this project, we will need to use certain online resources to our advantage,
guiding us through difficult mental blocks. We will most definitely have to think creatively for
our project. The success of our project relies heavily on our ability to generate ideas and problem
solve, seeing as we are creating something without many guidelines to follow. Seeing as we are
working as a pair, it is imperative that we exchange ideas, information, and feedback between
each other, to ensure we are on the same page. It is also a good idea for us to accept feedback
from others. To see this project to its end, we will need to also make sure that we stay on task.
We have some deadlines set in place as mentioned further above and will follow those to the best
of our abilities. Also, as mentioned above, this project will in turn contribute to society with
potential future progression in the engineering field giving some relevance.

We envision creating a functional go-kart that is self-powered by the motor in it. It will
have a steel frame built by us to accommodate the way we design everything. It will be a
physical version of our theoretical depiction we will create beforehand.

For assistance, we plan to get in contact with one of the shop teachers at the school,
particularly one who can share their expertise for the welding process. This would potentially be
Mr. Silver or Mr. Lee. We will contact them and hopefully use them as a resource that can give
us advice throughout our project. In terms or information resource, we are almost solely relying
on our own design. There may be some points where we may need to refer to YouTube to see
how other people did certain things, such as the steering mechanism. With that said, most of this
project will be our own measurements and creation. On the equipment side of things, we have
everything we need except for a welder which we will either need to use at the school’s metal
shop or borrow off someone. This is another hurdle we will have to figure out once we get to that
step in our process. For our materials we will need to buy majority of it, such as the steel bars
and motor, as well as some other extras. A lot of this will be bought via The Home Depot or
Craigslist.

We have created a rough budget breakdown for our project and limitations along with it.
We have this layout right now:
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Steel: $150

Motor: $150

Extras (wheels, seat, many other things, etc.): $200

We set a rough budget capped at $500. This is about what we are expecting to spend in entirety.
It could end up costing more or less than this. This is a loose budget. We won’t compromise
something if it brings us to $550, for example. However, we will be using this as a guideline for
our purchase behavior for the project.

So, why does our project matter? Admittedly, we were asking ourselves this same
question at first. Really, our project seems like just a fun go-kart build, which I guess is true to an
extent. But our project will be a great demonstration of our learning process. All the skills we
walk away from this project with and the experience we gain is the reason we are doing this.