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Thread: Unnamed FW crusher build diary

  1. #91
    Al_'s Avatar
    Member

    While I had a few good opportunities to do so, I didn't manage to thanks to being a crap/nervous/inexperienced driver

  2. #92
    Al_'s Avatar
    Member

    I’m updating this thread to detail a few upgrades on Pressure Point ready for next year. Overall I have been pretty happy with how it has gone at a couple of events, however there are a few areas that need some attention that I’ll go into below. None the less, I think its gone ok for a first attempt at a feather.


    The first thing I had to address was to find some things to save a bit of weight on the bot to put into the areas that need attention. The most obvious of these was the crusher arms. Unlike the chassis which has weight saving triangles cut out of it, the arms are solid aluminium pieces. I have re-designed the arms to have the same weight saving cut outs in them and the water jetters turned them around pretty quickly for me. Old arms and new lighter ones are shown below, total weight saving a shade over 200g.

    IMG_20171101_141852136.jpg


    Next up for attention was the armour panels for the sides and top. Each side and top piece of armour is currently made from 2 panels of HDPE bracketed together to get the required bend in them as the bot tapers from back to front. I decided to replace these with a single panel that is bent to achieve this same thing. This means a better panel fit, weight saved be not having all the bracketry and hopefully a stronger panel too. After watching a few videos, I found the HDPE is easy to bend with just a heat gun. I set a couple of pieces of metal up in a vice with small gap between them, and placed the HDPE behind them so I would only be heating up the strip where I wanted the bend to be. After a couple of minutes the HDPE was soft enough that it could be offered up to the bot and bent into shape. Old armour and new are shown below with about another 200g saved. I also replaced the baseplate and rear armour with identical pieces as these were showing the most wear of the remaining pieces.

    IMG_20171029_124035838.jpg


    With some weight saved it was time to start fixing some problems and first up are the wheels. Since the wheels are exposed they take a fair beating, particularly from arena hammers or from flippers when landing wheel first. The current wheels are nylon with bike tyres screwed to the outside of them and while they have proven to be fairly strong, they are way to brittle and all my wheels had cracked and one had failed completely.

    IMG_20171018_155824082.jpg

    I should say thanks to Shakey for the suggestion to make some out of HDPE. It had held up fine on the rest of the bot so I hope it should be fine as wheels, plus it doesn’t seem to have the brittleness of Nylon. This is what I have come up with. It’s the same weight as the Nylon wheel with the same tire on it, but made from 20mm HDPE. Totally untested in battle as of yet, but fingers crossed it will work.

    IMG_20171101_145530911.jpgIMG_20171102_132719727.jpg


    The biggest issue I have had by far has been the self righters. The first incarnation was too weak, with the arms flexing and when that was refined this then caused the cables that pull the arms to work lose. With the weight saved from the armour and crushing arms, I have designed some stronger self righters shown below. The original V1 is on the left, the intermediate V1.1 is in the middle and the new V2 in on the right.
    V2 is beefed up in all directions and 20mm thick and wide instead of 10mm which should remove most of the flexing. It also has a small metal bushing pressed into the bottom hole where the steel cable passes through it to protect it from the cable cutting into it.

    IMG_20171105_100124572.jpg

    The issue with the steel cable fixing was that it was held under the bolt and washer that secure the end of the ram to the crusher arm. The idea been as the arm moves in and out it pulls on the cable to move the self righting arms. However when the bot needed to self right and the cable was pulling against the bot’s weight it was sliding out from under the washer no matter how hard I tightened the bolt. To address this I have fitted 2 more fixings that go through the washer and into the arm below. This will pinch the cable on both sides and in a total 3 places. Plus I will also add a crimp on the cable as it exits the washer to further prevent it pulling through. You can see blow the black line on the washer which shows where the cable goes below it and the extra fixings for holding it.

    IMG_20171102_104035871.jpgIMG_20171112_154554025.jpg


    The cables are not fitted or tested yet as they needs an extra pair of hands to fit. There is also going to be a slightly wider front wedge to swap over when it arrives which should aid getting under other robots but otherwise Pressure Point’s upgrades are complete for now. As you can see, they leave the robot looking almost the same as it did before. See you in the arena!

    IMG_20171112_154515612.jpgIMG_20171112_154524441.jpg
    Last edited by Al_; 14th November 2017 at 19:51. Reason: Missing Picture

  3. #93
    microwaves be afraid, be VERY afraid XD

    Nawww i looks great now if i could get of my ass and finsh my bot it would be good.

  4. #94
    Ocracoke's Avatar
    Team Kaizen

    I love the look of those wheels. HDPE should be fine for that, Gabriel 2 can attest to that I am sure. Looking forwards to meeting Pressure Point back in the arena.
    Team Kaizen - Build Diary for all the robots

    AW: Amai, Ikari, Lafiel, Osu, Ramu
    BW: Shu!, The Honey Badger
    FW: Azriel
    MW: Jibril, Kaizen

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