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Even the cheap paper dust masks (50 for £5 at screwfix) and/or running a vacuum cleaner behind any power tools should stop most mdf dust from entering your lungs.
It's a shame I'm starting university next week because these would be fun to build :cry:
So my current thoughts for a robot are to make one called Dead Wood and it'll be based on the series 1 version of the house robot Dead Metal (get it?). The one with the arm that went all the way over.
Think I'll use MDF for everything, baseplate, uprights, supports, claws, arm, wheels.
I'll probably leave the claws stationary, unless I find an easy and cheap way to make them move, with an interchangeable weapon on the end of the arm from a cutting disk (for spinner events) to a chisel for everything else.
Anyone got any decent photos or info on the first Dead Metal that I can take from?
There maybe some floating around on the RW wiki
I had a quick web search, but there wasn't really that much out there. Not that detailed anyway.
Who is it that made the house robots? Maybe he could be helpful?
Chris Reynolds made them. :)
Best bet might be to re-watch all of Series 1 on Youtube. There are only six episodes and you'll have the house robot intro screens plus multiple camera angles to work from. But on the whole I think the S1 design of Dead Metal was very simple, just a hexagonal(ish) baseplate with wheels, the arm and a couple of thin metal spikey bulkheads.
Has anybody tried, or know of a robot that uses a crank mechanism to move an axe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank_%28mechanism%29
I want to turn the constant rotational motion of a motor into a reciprocating motion, and then probably via a rack and pinion into the forward and back motion of an axe.
I think most of the parts can easily be salvaged from 'bitz' but I'm pretty sure I'll have to have a reduction on the motor itself.
Anyone know of any calcs for axe length, weight, travel etc... I think a guide to an axe-bot was posted on here recently linking to the Aussie forum which may have included these.
I plan on putting this in a wooden robot by the way!
i think mortis used a crank mechanism... its been about 9 years since i last saw it though... swanny might be able to tell you though as i believe he owns it now;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeesKY3559o
Mortis was my first thought too, but if you watch the video closely the axe doesn't always complete a full motion (it sometimes retracts early) which would lead me to believe its not on a crank. I'll drop swanny a line though.
Plus Mortis cost a bomb!
A lot of crank based mechanisms are fastest mid stroke and have 0 velocity at the end of their stroke so make for a weak weapon.
You might need to combine it with something kind of like the mechanism on Gabriel so you get it up to maximum velocity and let it fall the rest of the way to get a harder hit.