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Thread: Team Death - New Heavyweight

  1. #41
    That looks absolutely fantastic as always. You've brilliantly demonstrated the classic thrown together style that seems to have been diminishing as of lately, it's a great influence that robots don't have to be multi-thousand pound Hardox behemoths yet still be effective. I can't wait to see the jaws working. Do you have any thoughts on names yet?

  2. #42
    Hi Theo
    Yes we do have a name for the Robot and have done from week 1 of the build
    but we are still keeping it under wraps untill the final presentation when the
    Robot is all painted and up and running-with a bit of luck within the next 6
    weeks.
    Meanwhile we may have a motto for our T shirts.
    (Insert robot name)....The widest jaws in Robot Wars

  3. #43
    Another weekend over and more progress achieved.
    This weekend I did amost a double shift on the robot build-
    three hours Saturday and the usual four hours this Sunday.
    On Saturday I worked mainly on the tongue of the robot
    which will form the main buffer zone in case of a frontal attack
    with the main aim of protecting the jaws from damage.
    Adam who was unavailable this week had cut the tongue
    plate in two last week and this plate needed further shaping before
    fitting into the gob between the jaws.
    I cut a bridge shape at the base of the tongue and this would allow
    the chain and guides to pass underneath, I also added some sleeves
    for the guides to enter and offer more protection against inpact.
    The tongue was welded in place, guides and sleeves too and I was
    well pleased with the finished effect.
    On Sunday I continued where I left off and added the chains to the
    guides and was once again happy with the operation, they turned out to
    be really easy to pull with no guide wheels or grease and the way they
    rattled in the scoop when pulled made a great noise.
    It's been a bit of a brain teaser as to what will activate the chain
    pulled scoop -gas comes with its own complications, like making space
    for a gas bottle and ram and the alternative- actuators although strong, usually come
    in a feeble aluminium casing and wont stand a major impact.
    So my latest idea is to build our own strong enough actuator.
    The rest of Sunday was spent strenghthening the scoop brackets
    and fitting the underbody castors.
    Purchase of the day was a weights bar and item laid around in the
    workshop waiting to catch my eye and be fitted was a apprilia
    chain.
    DSCN1779.jpgDSCN1781.jpgDSCN1782.jpgDSCN1786.jpgDSCN1789.jpg

  4. #44

  5. #45
    Looks the me like they are just the right width on the shaft with bearing blocks on either side of the axle.

  6. #46
    Thank's Dave I'm glad to hear you love our Robot and I'm pleased to say
    shes single .
    Euan is right the wheels cant slip sideways as they are very tight between
    the bearing hubs, the wheels dont have bearings themselves, they sit on
    the spindle 22mm thick and are bolted to it and the sprocket is welded to
    the spindle shaft.

  7. #47
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    A delayed blog post this week, as I was preoccupied for a while with MRI scans and the buying of a car, but here we go, better late than never!
    Sunday was a day of progress, and we got a few things done.
    Sometime since the last post, Colin had acquired a winch, a video of its pulling power below,, which will later become the mechanism for closing the jaws. Using a chain going to each jaw, being tied into one, and when the motors engages, the force pulls both jaws shut simultaneously.
    Our main task for the day was fitting this into the machine, which was surprisingly simple, it just took a single piece of metal being fabricated, drilled into it, and a nut welding to one side of it for easy tightening and later removal, then the metal being welded inside and winch pulley being mounted to it. The winch uses its own motor, which needs to still be positioned. The motor uses the same voltage as the main motors, so a seperate power source or system isn't required, but only optional depending on some factors later down the line.
    We also worked out a return system, using some springs so, when the motor has disengaged, the jaws return to their open position near immediately. This system currently needs a little more refining, but the proof of concept was certainly there.
    Part of the jaw opening requires a double sprocket, so the motor can turn it with a little chain, and in turn, turn the other chain leading to the jaws. This is to stop us needed an exceptionally long chain that might be prone to being knocked out of place or off the sprocket, two smaller chains may be more reliable than an exceptionally long one. I'll be going to a local store in Wakefield that sells bearings during the week to acquire this.


    Sundays images,
    1 An image of the actual winch Colin acquired, it was taken off the plank of wood prior to installing into the bot.
    2 A close up of the jaw mechanism, showing the springs used to return the jaws to position when the pulling motor disengages.
    3 The current state of the internals, after the winch system was installed, still to do is fitting the controlling motor, this will be done next week most likely.
    IMG_20170827_122703.jpgIMG_20170827_134439.jpgIMG_20170827_152101.jpg

    There's also two videos;
    Demonstrating the action of the jaws, demonstrated by Colin pulling on the control chains here, they were hard work to pull, so never quite made it to full closure, but it certainly gives you an idea:
    The strength of the motor in the winch, we're intending on using this motor, but we're aware we might need something a little more powerful to not only pull the jaws together, but also maintain a good grip on anything caught in the jaws. So the end force may be stronger than this:


    Some machines have a death hum, but if those jaws are anything to go by, we have a death rattle!

  8. #48
    Car boot Bargains and Robot application.
    Captains log engineer scott reporting sorry coulden't resist
    its been a star trek kind of end to the day.
    I visited the car boot as usual before Adam arrived to help with
    the Robot build and once again bargains were to be had.
    First purchase was a caravan stablising bar for £2 then
    a steel plated plywood boogie on castors-instant robot for someone, a 5kg box of nuts and
    bolts for £2 and a stainless steel sieve for 20p.
    At the end of the day I cut up the sieve and used it to cover
    protruding motors and as the sparks flew through the holes
    it just reminded me of star trek special effects.
    DSCN1790.jpgDSCN1791 (2).JPG

  9. #49
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    Following on from Colins post about the car boot, I'll post about how some of it came in to use in todays building session!


    Today was mostly spent getting the double sprocket ready - this will take the motor chain over the sprocket, and in turn pull on the jaw chain. This was deemed a better solution instead of having one rather long chain running most of the length of the insides, splitting it into two seperate ones.
    The first thing we did was to prepare a little mount for the sprocket, so it could turn independently of everything else using the bearings I had acquired over the week (see image 1). This was a fairly simple task, once we had decided on the suitable metal thickness and such to ensure strength over load and no bending possibilities.
    After we'd done, we needed to find a place to mount it to. It became clear last week that we'd need to make a mount ourselves, as the ideal place was floating above everything, and we're not wizards nor above the laws of physics just yet.
    Enter the stabilising towing bar Colin mention on the previous post!
    After sending it on a crash diet course, courtesy of an angle grinder, it was cut down in length to fit neatly on the bottom of the robot. After being bolted in place (see image 2), so it could be rapidly removed so we can get to the internals and replace wheels. We lined up the previously put together sprocket and mount and it all lined up neatly (see image 3)
    Unfortunately, the time ran out before this was put together, Colin may find the time to do it during the week, if not, that'll be the first thing for next sunday!

    DQuWBCI1.jpgsd7EJfRu.jpgW0IiyzoJ.jpg

  10. #50
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    Another Sunday gone, another day doing things.

    Today was a fairly one track day, and we spent it mostly on mounting the motor for the weapon mechanism into the system. This required some extra exhaust brackets, which come in very handy for mounting these sorts of motors. We then also needed to source a strip of metal to mount the brackets to, and then the entire thing was welded into the robot after a bit of headscratching, as the initial mount was hugely out of whack with the position of the previous dual sprocket it needed to link to, we never really figured out for sure exactly how we made that mistake, but we recovered and didn't repeat it, which is the important part!
    Unfortunately, purely by lack of forethought on my part, we didn't photograph the actual end unit comprised of the brackets and mounts to demonstrate that. So you'll have to use imagination for that bit. We ended up having to mount one of the brackets on the outside of the bot, as otherwise the two brackets would be within a couple of inches of each other, and not all that supporting overall, not to worry though, as that, plus the poking out motor, will be covered by an extra layer or two of cover and armor by the end.

    However, we did at the end take some images of the current situation in its entirity.
    The first image shows the entire assembled unit welded to the bot, this takes up the gap at the top of the main circular unit, and holds the motor (visible to the right of the image, sticking out) in place very well.
    Second image shows the entire under side of the bot as it is now. A huge array of chain going everywhere, imagine the noises that'll make when everything is going simultaneously! Hopefully keeps with the industrial look of everything!




    u19ZOLlU.jpgtkrnaaXH.jpg

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