Carnifex.....New heavy

Heya guys. From November I will start building my new heavyweight. Since I am a rather inexperienced heavyweight builder (aside from a wheel chair plywood box) I wanted to post my work on here to get some feed back during the building process.
I am not much of a grease monkey and currently work as a computer animator. The guys who know me here will know that I have dabbled in this hobby for a very long time.
I have had this thing designed and showed it to quite a lot of people to get there opinions.
I have all ready aquired a few of the parts such as most of the transmition, the hydraulic cylinder and a wotty. I still know there are some nice expensive bits to get.
Without further ado here are the CADs.

http://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jawdownbw2.jpghttp://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jawdownbw2.jpg
http://img355.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jawupsu3.jpghttp://img355.imageshack.us/my.php?image=jawupsu3.jpg

Yes I know, ambitus! Well design thought was that I wanted something that looked mean and also really entertaining. There has not been many gripper lifters. I dont think this hobby needs another pneumatic flipper and I want to be a bit more ambitions then just a rambot. The weapon works a bit like a scissor lifter and will crush around the weight of its opponents then lift.
I plan to cut the main chassie my self and get it properly welded. Chassie is made of 3.2 or 4mm hardox. 2x bosch 750 one stage gear reduction then a chain from the rear wheel going to the front. Speed at around 10mph. The claw will be made out of wood to make sure it works then finally cnced.

First questions I have is what is the best way to cut around a 20mm hole in hardox? Also I have my wheels going though the floor and whats the best way to cut these out? Drill holes then connect the four dots with an angle grinder?

How effective do you think the weapon will be? Looking at the designs I know its far too small to properly lift an opponent. Its only 70cm long by 75cm wide. I have put as much weight onto the back as possible (motors and hawkers).

For drive I plan to double up on blue wheels, is this pointless and will drain power or worth the extra grip?

Also for wheel mouths I have come up with a crude box section support thing which I am sure can be improved. How do you support your wheels and what do you suggest?

I think thats everything, Since I am a computer animator I have the sexy renders as well. Enjoy
http://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highq2dk7.jpghttp://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highq2dk7.jpg
http://img355.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highq1wg8.jpghttp://img355.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highq1wg8.jpg

Wow, I like how this looks.

I understand the basic principle of the grab and lift device but with just the one ram, does it crush into the opponent until the crusher cant really move anymore, and then due to the way its connected, starts lifting the arm? I had a design for a grabber/crusher FW a few months back but it used two linear actuators, so its interesting to see a similar thing done with one ram

hi, i agree that looks very impressive,
ive only just finished my first ever robot:) (picture on profile) and ive got my wheels mounted in a similar way using box section and long bolts which i use as the axles.

i would say though getting each box sections hole and mounting it exactly inline for the other side of the axle, was a challenging thing 2 do, i had to ensure i made a hole exactly in the centre of the box section which didnt always happen so my wheels axles wernt straight so my drive belt kept falling off. I guess it could just be because im new to the robot sport and ive a lot 2 learn, but you could mount your axles on bearings which could just bolt straight down onto your base plate- they would end up being the same height and all you would have to then do is make sure they are inline which wouldnt be too dificult.

( the bearings im on about are this kind of thing http://www.technobots.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Cast_Pillow_Block_Bearings_380.ht mlhttp://www.technobots.co.uk/acatalog...Block_Bearings _380.html )

and as for making the holes in your base plate for the wheels drilling the 4 holes and grinding it out is the way i would do it but it would be better on some sort of milling machine but it depends on what youve got to work with. to make my robot all i had basically was a grinder, welder, drill and jigsaw- no proper workshop or anything.

putting a lot of weight at the back is good because if you managed to pick something up you would have a better chance of not tipping over and i do think you would need another ram one for crushing and the other for lifting, like storm 1 or a robot called craven from robotwars extreme 2

hopefully ive been a bit of help

calum

Thank you for the comments so far.
Jamie: I think you have the idea. First thing that will happen when using the ram is the top claw will come down. When that hits an oponent it will crush the weight then finally lift the lower part of the arm.
The larger the object the higher it will lift, the smaller the object the less it will lift.
It has a bite of around 250 and might put a min bight of 100 - 80. This is to help the shrimec.
It should bite quickly as the claw doesnt have to move much to bite then lift.

Calum- Thanks for telling me your experiences of a boxsecion bracket. I thought alignment would also be an issue. I was thinking about pillow block bearings but they are expensive and not light 4kg and 64quid. The wheels all ready have bearings as well. I do have a mill built into my lathe but I have no chance fitting that base plate onto the bed. I dont think it can handle milling hardox as well.

Thanks again guys
Marco

Id suggest spending out and getting the whole lot lazer or waterjet cut.
Try http://www.abbacommercials.com/Equipment/index.aspxhttp://www.abbacommercials.com/Equipment/index.aspx once you have some proper sizes for them to quote from.

Just gotta say it looks awesome! Reminds me of Draven/Anthrax from RW Ex 1 :)

Drawing it is fine ...getting the concept inside the weight can be ....Challenging.
So ... WEIGHT.
Check calcs, re-check and get some decent scales.

Just some news. I have acquired some bosch motors and not far off having all the major components to start.
I have decided to build the feather weight version to see how the design works in combat without spending a ton of cash. I am knocking together a heavyweight to play around with till I start on this.

I have changed the lifter gripper mech to something a bit more simple. But I do like the look

http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1286mk3.jpg]http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2...1286mk3.th.jpg[/url]

and the mech in action

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=vX3uFDzmlHI&eurl=http://pl.youtube.com/my_videos_edit2http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=vX3uFD...om/my_videos_e dit2

Looks as if it could be quite effective, you dont mention anywhere what you are planning on using as a pump/power unit, the CAD,s are good, but still no appearence of any pump or pipes, etc.

Thanks for the comments David
Main reason why I have been quiet about that is because I dont have it in my hands yet. Usually when people explain things in text form it takes a while to get though. While if I hold something in my hands then I usually understand quite easily.
Not cadded because I dont have the dimensions. There is a space for it. The wotty is next to the front wheel on its left. The pump will be in that space on the other side.
Those cads are now old as I have changed the gripper lifter mec to something more simple, less materials and will self right the robot. Will put new cads when they are done properly in solidworks.

A question that I still need an answer for is, whats the best way to cut a 20mm circle in hardox? I struggle to do 6.

Thanks again

drop it round mine im mill the 20mm hole in it for ya

Right I now have all the major parts.
I now have two different rams but plan to use the original one from Mario.
The other is from Kenny as he sold me all the old bits from Raven, a crusher that he made.
I also have the pump and hi pressure valve. Kenny also sold me some of cells that he has taken apart and was planning to rebuild.

What I need advice in is assembling battery packs. I searched around and cant really find any good websites or previous threads.
I have soldered batterys cells before and Mark tought me a few tips. Clean filed battery head, hot soldering iron and not to heat up the cell too much.
Its the constructing of packs that I know nothing about. Any cheap supplier that has some battery sleeves? I think they are size C batteries. How should i connect them together when they are in there sleeves? Lok tight? Also do I have to wrap them in large heat shrink? Dont suppose I can get away using duct tape?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Still a fair bit of time before I start on construction. Maybe beginning of March.
Here is the gripper lifter mec being tested in a featherweight version
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vX3uFDzmlHIhttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vX3uFDzmlHI

yeh use gaffer tape i did i think its ok, id suggest tinning the battery tags before soldering onto cells then have the hot soldering iron place tag on cell and the solder if you have enough on should be good and strong

Wow! That looks positively awesome, Marco. :)

Thanks Alex and Kody
Woops posted the video twice. I wasnt sure if I had posted that video or not.
I decided to super glue the card sleves together then wrap around the outside with gaffa tape. I then spent the long tiring job of soldering the cells together. I decided to use wire as its all that I had as well as some one told me that it can transfer more current then battery tabs.
I have one pack done and I finished at around 1am in the morning after starting making the pack at 11pm. Once you start you just cant stop!
I didnt charge the packs but I checked that the packs retained charge well and I put two large fans next to it to cool it down.
One pack done....two more to go.

Hey, just found this. That machine looks incredible. Have you made any more progress with it? I was thinking of something like this as a drive all day feather for the RW and Robots live events. I can just see it looking very very cool in my head with a Beauty style exoskeleton and a really nasty and ornate claw head.