Armour

Hi everyone

I was wondering whether anyone could give advice on the subject of armour. My robot Psycho Fling has 6mm polycarbonate as armour, but Ive been told this weak against spinners. So I went on the search for recommendation about steel, I found some on ebay. Is this the best place to get it and what thickness would I need?

Thanks Alex

You could look through the feather weight data base and see what other people have used. http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/discus/messages/13/87.htmlhttp://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/disc...ges/13/87.html

The search funtion up in the top right corner is very useful for finding previously posted information.

Well, I would always go with the hardox option, weighs the same as steel but a lot tougher and just as cheap. Only comes in a minimum of 4mm (3.2 but it is 3 or 4 times as much) which is the downside.

You could still stick with plastic, Polypro or other plastics wont shatter like polycarb can. We got a few sheets from Farnell at quite resonable prices, the thicker the better, but would recommend you clad it with some tougher material (steel/hardox/etc) where the spinners hit.

see rampage for an excellent example of what mark just said

Polypropelyne is a very good material for working with, very easy to cut/shape. Spinners will get through it, but aslong as your major components arent against the armour you should be ok. Polyprop also flexes back into its origoinal shape and so spinner hits spear to heal themselves. If your components are close to the armour, i would suggest backing polyprop with thin steel.

ive got 4mm polycarb round my bot will that last or should i put some 5mm ali round as well? and were can i get sheets of ali from

you dont need any armour if you can drive well enough...lol.
I think mines polypropelene, its probably most likely to be. Cant beat mystery plastic! lol. But my design aint the same as most peeps either, so, think its different for me.

I think youd be best off piling on some 8ish mm polypropelene if youve got the weight. Cheaper than ali plus it adds good impact absorbsion from those nasty spinners.

what you always have to bear in mind with armour, is that if you dont intend to fight spinners, dont bother putting on the armour to protect against them. You can easily back out of a fight with a spinner.

To give you an idea what type of armour you will need to stand up to the likes of Scorpion Evil, on Dragon 2 I have 20mm nylon inner armour with 10mm Ti on top of this on the front and 4mm Hardox on the sides and rear. But like people have said you dont have to fight the spinners, even if you are in the arena in a fight you can ask them not to attack you and we wont unless its a competition battle.

Hows Baramot these days.. Fully recovered I hope! :uhoh:

No still in bits

ill put the cad in my profile in a min the front scoop is gunna be ti or hardox and then the top bottom and back are polycarb while the wheel covers will be hardox so i was thinkin of puttin an extra plate of meta lon the top and bottow and replacin the back poly for hardox

a lot of edges for a spinner to get hold of there. id rethink the design, triple the thicknesses of armour, or dont fight spinners.

I like the design, has potential, as long as you are a good driver and keep that wedge pointed at the spinners, it should be ok also assuming its thick enough.

Thought about joining the side armour onto the front wedge? means spinners only have one edge to catch on (the corner) instead of the 2 they got atm, also welding the sides of the scoop to the sider armour would give it alot of strength.

I agree with Ed tho- looks cool :)

only prob is im only 11 and cant weld dunno if i could bolt it would it still be strong enuf and were can i get some sheet metals?

Why does everyone worry about being taken apart by spinners so much?
If you get drawn against one, you go in there and get killed! Thats the point int it, or am I missing something?
I may just be slightly mental, but if everyone designs that way, every robot will just end up as either a spinner or a box/wedge with lots of armour. I dont think fighting spinners should be the main thing in mind when you build a bot.

(Message edited by Dgr on April 28, 2006)

Dave, your 100% right its not just you.. some people are quite protective of there machines because of there cost or time spent together during the build and repairs. People just judge featherweights on how well they would stand up to spinner more than anything else, but sadly that just leads to the whole Ti and Hardox pushers/spinner beaters. Quite a controversial subject.

Chris - ^_^

I enjoy getting battered as much as anyone at the time. Its just the effort and money after to repair time after time. Having said that, Ive not yet backed down and am not likely to!

None of us would do it if we wernt prepared to put in time and effort would we? It can be a ridiculously expensive, time-consuming hobby, but I know for one Im addicted to it, and I know anyone who does it must feel the same way.
If were judging the competition on who stands up to a spinner best, Ill quite happily take last position, but Ill still fight em if Im drawn against one. I see that as a kind-of honour! And, of course, the battle is never won until its over...anything can happen!:)

i must admit i like to fight any robot that can damage my machines as its that which will get your heart going, thats the exciting part. however with 2 years of work gone into venom and a full time job gone into building Predator its somtimes been too much. Venoms armour took a week to make each panel and so its not a case of haveing a quick fix if it did get shredded lol. same with predator.

why dont be afraid for RAZER like robots that use hydralics to ?
have only seen a robot whit 10 mm ali aurmour that stand agenst RAZER and the robot have no weapon, only puching oponents around (and LOST).
it only gets the robot heavy whit thick aurmour and expensiv, it,s about destruction and to survive it and winn. NO?

Remember, the best form of defence is a good offense. We really took it to the extreme with the typhoon series! but if you have a dirty great big disc or weapon at one end, chances are not a lot is going to get past it.

Im not there to win or survive, no. Im there for that heart pounding moment that James talks about. If my bot has to be swept out the arena, its no more than I expected it to and it was a laugh. If it doesnt come out like that, possibly even winning, its so much more than I expected of it and I feel great! Anyone whos seen me fight ants can testify theyre badly made and poorly designed, but Id much rather have something interesting than something indestructible. Kudos to anyone who can suceed in both catergories!