Hi All!

I'm Will and new to this but I've been interested in building robots for years (I just had too many other things to do!) but I'm now at a point where I wanted to get involved in making something.

I've seen the general advice to newbies already - build small (lightweight seems to be the ideal category as a starter) and read the build threads etc which I will do as questions occur to me.

I've got a few ideas (but don't we all!) involving springs to store energy vs CO2 or other methods as I could see them being much lighter weight than CO2 in the smaller weight classes yet still give a very explosive force on release and be much cheaper to maintain. I note in the rules that they must be unloaded at the start of a fight which seems perfectly sensible for safety. Has anyone used these with any success? Or is it in the realm of half baked ideas that don't quite work in practice?

I'm in the northwest (St Helens) so if anyone is nearby I would appreciate seeign them in the metal/plastic/etc to get a feel for things in the metal; I'm even prepared to lend a pair of hands if anyone needs them as I appreciate getting hands on is the best way to learn and don't mind being a spare wheel in a team.