Over the last few months I have been working on getting the drive pods for the robot done. This month I have been working on joining those two drive pods with a welded steel frame that will make up a bulk of the robot in both size and shape. I prefer to build robots that have lots of angles instead of flat and box shaped parts both because I feel they look a little better and angles deflect hits well.
The above picture shows the first two pieces of steel cut and laid out on one of the drive pods.
To get the drive motors to sit flat agaist the drive pods I had to use my milling machine to cut the mounts down a little on the edges to let them clear the 1/8" thick steel frame.
Here I am taping a hole in the drive pod to bolt the steel frame to it, and two pieces already bolted down.
I usually work on my robot early in the morning so having a fridge stocked with Mt Dew is a must! I spaced all those drinks out over a few days, I promise!
I already know this robot is going to be to heavy since the last version was 60.0 pounds on the Robogames scale, so this time around I am taking steps early on to try to bring the weight down a little since I am going with heavier drive motors and the addition of a flame thrower. Here I am drilling some holes in a steel frame piece.
Tho one with the holes is weighs about half as much as the solid one and probably less than half as strong, but its all a weight game.
The aluminum drive pods are the next thing to loose some meat. Here I have marked with a marker where I want to remove some material.
I used my milling machine to cut out the rectangles in the aluminum, it takes about four passes to cut through the 1/4" 6061 taking 1/8" off at a time.
I also drilled some holes in the bottom of the drive pod, it's looking like swiss cheese!
Here are both drive pods after they have been lightened and the first parts of the steel frame bolted on. since you can't weld steel to aluminum I used some 1/4-20 button head cap screws to hold the two disimilar metals together.
Next up on the to do list was to shorten the drive shafts to thier final length and cut the groves in them for the snap rings.
Here they are shortened up. I used a sawsall to cut them off and then I turned the ends on my lathe. While they where in the lathe I cut another groove for a snap ring on the end.
Here is a picture of both sides of the drive pods showing the snap rings in place. This is the first time I have used these and so far I am happy with them. They are much lighter, cheaper and smaller than a shaft collar.
To join the two drive pods together I started out cutting some 1/8" thick 3/4" wide steel bar into strips.
After spending what felt like forever squaring things up I welded the bars into place, checking to make sure things stayed square several times.
This picture shows the tubing I am using for the lifting forks this time around, its pretty heavy duty stuff.
Here is the lifting forkes welded up so I can use them for layout purposes. In the background you can see me starting to lay out internal spars in the frame.
Several of the frame members had to be milled to allow clearance for the pieces they sit on, here I am taking the lip off this piece of angle iron.
And here is that same piece showing why I needed to do the previous step, it sits nice and flush now, ready to be welded together.
Here are the parts to the bracket I made to hold down the air cylinder, I used 3/16" steel for these parts.
Here they are welded in place. Notice the frame rails only have holes drilled in them on one side, I left the side alone that will see lots of force from the lifting arm. These two frame rails bending would be BAD news.
Here is the air cylinder mounted, its looking like a Bot!
Its kind of hard to see in these pictures, but there is now two vertical supports welded towards the back of the robot, these are what the lifting arm will mount to and pivot on.
Here I am about half way done with the arm, now I just need to join the upper and lower pieces.
All done! This part of the robot bent at the last robo games so I tried out a different design this time.
Here is the back end of the bot starting to take shape. I am using lots of 1/8" x 3/4" strap to build this frame.
Here I am building the front of the bot. There are lots of tricky angles this time around but I think it will look good when it is done.
Ok, I obviously slacked off taking pictures for a little while, with the event about two weeks away I have been picking up the pace a little. This picture shows the frame almost done and most of the components mounted.
I had to create several brackets to hold all the internal parts in, and I reused several mounts from the last robot as well since some of tha parts are the same.
Everything is smashed in there! The butane tank ended up closer to the Dewalt motor then I would like (the picture makes it hard to tell but there is just under a 1/4" between them.) I'm thinking of putting a chunk of Silicone rubber inbetween them to keep the heat from the motor away from the tank.
Thats all for November! I have about two weeks to finish the Bot, its going to be a close one!
