Devil's Coach-Horse

So in typical me fashion, after 10 months of not settling on a design, I now have just 2 months to build a robot, picking a design more out of necessity than anything else!
And so the pile of bits in my workshop that desperately do not want to be a robot are now forced into it through my own blood sweat and tears, and tools or ever increasing size...

So present to you, The Devil's Coach Horse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%2...h_horse_beetle

Attachment 4341

It's a 4 bar lifter, since (at least in my experience over the past few years) no one has done one. Didn't want to get into Pneumatics, or gearbox building, so settled on Linear Actuators for the lifter.

Here's the beasty!
Attachment 4339

It's about the only part of this robot that is Bitza-ty too. Was donated to us by my local Black Smith (no really) who scrounged it from an old people's home I believe... Used to raise and lower big ol' CRT screens it's got some oomph (Dan used to to lower out an engine)

It's a big thing, so I needed big wheels:
Attachment 4340

To my horror the 125mm blue castors from bearing boys have a 15mm ID bore, which means a standard 3/8UNF nut/studding connector just drops right through. After much head scratching I simply bought some 15mm PVC tube, forced it over the nut and then press fitted into the wheel, job done!

Attachment 4342

I then cut up the arms for the 4 bar with an angle grinder (deciding on the lengths and ratios of the 4-bar mechanism was a nightmare, and took ages to figure out a design with good lift and reach). Popped in some nylon shoulder washers to stop the pieces excessive rubbing against each other and done.

Attachment 4343

Now on with the rest of the build!