Hi all, please can you suggest some places I can order plate steel etc say 8-10mm thick, sort of the stuff you all use for building your heavyweights with.
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Hi all, please can you suggest some places I can order plate steel etc say 8-10mm thick, sort of the stuff you all use for building your heavyweights with.
We don't use metal that thick its too heavy. We mostly use 3.2mm Hardox or 4mm if you have to as 3.2 is a bit scarce at the moment.
ok thats cool. Do you know of a good suppliers.
Search for waterjetting companies - there were some recommendations there
www.yorkshireprofiles.co.uk
ok thanks. My featherweight is nearly finished and I'm ready to build a heavyweight so am now reading up for this lol
Is 6mm Ally strong enough for a baseplate? Just from curiosity.
Mute runs with a 6mm ali base plate and it lasted all these years and all the self rights :)
Oh cool, thanks for that! I like the look of it, you can do a lot with it and keep the weight down. Does it angle grind ok?
no aluminium should not be cut with any spinning cutters as it tends to melt a create a horrible mess, jigsaw or bandsaws are your only real options, unless you can get a good bech shear
Anglegrinding ali is a fickle thing.
Normal cutting disks clog up and don't cut very well. Als, the chances are reasonably that the disk will shatter.
One thing is for sure, ali will get a lot hotter than steel for the same amount of work.
Unless it's a very high grade of ali, a jigsaw of good quality is your friend.
a Rage saw will do it. The thickness all depends on your design, Mute has got away with 6mm as its small and has chunky bulkheads that take all the stress, Kronic has 3mm Ali, but nothing is attached to it, it's just armour. If you want something just to bolt everything on top off (the way people tend to build FWs), then you will need alot thicker.
Yeah had a go at dinner time with grinding some ally angle n it struggled but will go through box section dead easy. Mild Steel's a lot cheaper so will look to that I would think lol, found http://www.metals4u.co.uk on the web and they seem pretty cheap.
if it's ali box section then get out the hacksaw and do it the old fashioned way
Going back to a hack saw after an angle grinder was a bit of a shock this afternoon.
if using an angle grinder make sure to get the correct grade non ferrous cut-off discs, normal ones will overheat, may get stuck in alu and shatter...seen it happen :uhoh:
I call bull shit on thatQuote:
Originally Posted by terry
Tanto uses 10 - 80mm Hardox
its about your design
JL Steels are my supplier of Hardox
That's all well and good if you build another brick without a weapon, adding a decent weapon tends to eat up that extra weight pretty fast. There's also no heavies than can really damage 4mm hardox so no need to go any thicker :)Quote:
Originally Posted by craig_anto
tbh with most heavyweights nowadays you can get away with 5mm aluminium and be fine. Or go for some 2mm ali or plastic and then just have your important bits covered in some 4mm hardox inside.
Yeah i was thinking along those lines. I'm planning on building a heavyweight set of jaws so there won't be a lot of armor on it, and I'll bulkhead it out where needed and stuff. It was mostly to know where the land lies and what other people are using at the minute.
I think the big thing in the UK is that we don't have to build for stuff like Last Rites like they do in the US.
rear actuated lifter tail and flame thrower not good weapons then Grant
Cherub has 5mm steel not Hardox but that used in submarine hulls! Thor can bend 3.2 and 4mm on a good day.
Saint uses 3mm steel similar too Hardox and conveyor belt this combination seems to work against everything out there.
20mm UHMWPE seems to be good too, as I have used this on the top of Saint for a long time now and no axe
has got further than half way through so far.
So the armour you use depends on the type of robot you want to build, and the money you have to build it with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by craig_anto
Yep....you can certainly bull @!## alright.
I think the development in feathers is going to drive this more than heavyweightsQuote:
Originally Posted by craig_colliass
i.e. as well as the usual assortment of cheese shaped flippers there are high energy impact weapons like boner. Upping the thickness of metal is one way but having replaceable (sacrificial) panels such as HDPE over a frame or monocoque should drive some inventive approaches.
Off topic I would like to see more brushless drivetrains being tested out
8)