Bits of progress on a few areas to report:

First up, I have received and tested the speed controller for the weapon motor. I have tested it with the motor that I am fitting to the hydraulic power pack a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 brushless and confirmed I have full forwards and reverse operation. The speed controller itself is one of the Hawk Fusion ESCs intended for RC cars. Failsafe tested and working on it too.
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Next, thanks to some advice from Kenny, I have checked the speed of the Aerodrive compared to the motor it replaces in order to avoid pump cavitation from running it too fast. I had calculated the Aerodrive to be about 20% faster than the old motor to give me some headroom for increased flow if possible. After measuring them it turns out the Aerodrive is about 25% faster, so this means I can limit it to the same speed as the old motor by limiting the throw on the TX and still get a big increase in power, and I still have speed headroom if that’s needed/possible.

I have had the pins for the ram and crusher arm made and test fitted together, and the parts for the front wedge and arm tip are at the water-jetters.I hope to have these soon to start mocking the parts up.

Probably the biggest bit of progress since the last update is one of these:
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Unfortunately this means leaving behind the comfort of a nice, warm dining room with a dining table as a workbench. The plan is to wire it up, insulate it, board it out and get some work benches in over Christmas so that bot construction can continue in there in the New Year.

Finally, the drive for the robot is sort of modular, in that it can bolt on and off the rest of the machine. Its designed to run on a pair of Saturn 16s with the 775 motors but these are currently out of stock. By changing a couple of motor mounts I can run a pair of the Argos finest drill motors/gearboxes just to get me running around, so I have got a couple of these. I have also received one of the 2 TZ85a ESCs and successfully modified it for brushed operation. However I have a question about the drill motor/gearboxes. Ahem. How do you get the balls out? I mean a few fell out when I turned it upside down, but the rest of them wont come out even though they move freely in their holes. I have tried shaking it, I have tried sucking them out, and I have tried taping it on a hard surface (but not so hard as to damage the l/h screw)all to no avail. Any tips for doing this which don't involve taking the whole thing to bits as I can’t lock the gearboxes up with grub screws untill I remove the ball bearings.

Cheers!