Sorry It has been so long since I updated this blog! Life gets busy (Which means my wife gets demanding with the "Honey DO list") I have been able to sneak in some robot building time however and I just thought I would take a second to share what I have been up to.
I have spent a lot of time designing a 12 pound spinner robot to take to the WAR event in Seattle next month. I finally got the design nailed down and have started cutting out parts. Here is what things should look like when the robot is all done. I am actually building two of these robots so that my niece and nephew can drive them at the competition. Should be fun if/when they have to fight each other =)
Here is the robot with its top off! I'm trying something new for this robot, I call it sandwich construction. The frame/armor will be made of 5 CNC cut pieces of 1/2" thick Lexan with pockets for all the compnents. I will then stack them on top of one another and run 8 bolts through to hold everything together.
There are a lof of custom aluminum and plastic parts on this robot so I have turned to my trusty CNC machine that I built last year to make them. This is a chunk of 1.5" thick aluminum that is about to become a weapon pulley/blade hub.
4 hours later I have my part! I love having a robot that makes parts for my other robots. I have to make all these parts twice since I am building twin robots so here is another chunk of aluminum ready for four more hours of CNC work.
I put the pulley on my lathe to cut the round profile for the belt to fit into. After a tip from Kevin at Team Velocity I am using large O rings as drive belts for the weapons. I made the groove wide and deep enough in the pulley for a 1/4" round belt. You can see there are three male rounded drive cogs on top of the pulley. The blade will have the female version of this pattern cut into the center to transfer the power.
Here is the pulley from the back. I hollowed out as much meterial as I could to get the weight down, they ended up at 5oz each. You can see the bonze bearings I am using, the weapon will rotate around a dead shaft that will help stiffen the frame.
A little more work on the CNC machine and lathe and I have the smaller pulley to go on the weapon motor. Instead of driving the pulley with the motor shaft I bolted the pulley on the back of the can, right where the Propeller mount is supposed to go.
Here is the first frame piece fresh off the CNC machine! It looks pretty snazzy and it is extremely light weight.
Just for fun I through in the parts to get an idea of how everything will fit, looking good! There is still a lot to do before the competition so more posts to come!
