Megantereon: The Waterjet Paradox

That happened around late April 2014. What you didn't see was that the controller going up in smoke due to the back EMF, trying to reverse the motor while it was still running, and this controller doesn't support regenerative braking.

Rewind back a couple of days, and I finally get all the parts made of 1/4" aluminum, along with the brake rotor, cut on the CSAIL waterjet. This happened after trying for a week to get access to a waterjet, but the person who was available to help me was busy.

I finally got them cut, and got the gearbox assembled, along with the frame itself.

We now fast forward to late July, and I finally get the front wheel assemblies fabricated,

At this point, I was pushing to get the go kart finished, but I ran into a new problem.

Harbor freight wheels are cheap, and I planned on using for the drive wheels. However, if you turn them you notice that the wheel is notably out of true, i.e. they dont rotate in a plane. They wobble instead. There were also some issues with the rear brake not being able to fully rotate due to the brake caliper hitting the standoffs. To remedy this, I designed a new hub, so that I could keep the tire.

That hasn't been machined yet, so what we're left with is a 90% completed Megantereon, siting under a desk. Hopefully I'll finish it this summer.