HardWired II

[Flag Captured]

Unbelievably, progress has been made!

Looking at having things lasercut because I'm without the tools to build anything myself with any kind of precision, does anyone know how much it'd be to have something like this cut out of 10mm HDPE:

(it's 430x300 with M6 countersunk holes)

And this out of 20mm HDPE:
(that's 280 long x65 tall)

In other words, is it worth the cost? I don't have a mill so the pocket in that second one would probably be way out of the question...

Thanks for any help! Full CAD assembly soon, just finalising the batteries and other assorted electronics, then it'll be ready to go. Hopefully should be building very soon, within a fortnight at most depending how quick the turnaround is if I do get everything lasercut!

[GlenR]

To be honest those bits can be cut and assembled accurately with a hand drill and a cheap nasty jigsaw + scribe and ruler. The plastic supplier will cut it out for you to the right size to make life easier again.

I don't think you can laser HDPE anyway, so it'll have to be waterjetted = $$$. For reference i had 2x base and 2x top plates waterjetted from 4.5mm hdpe with the same amount of features and it cost $200 aud with me supplying the material.

[mrsam]

I did all of Hatchet's base with a hand saw and drill and a centre punch, took a while but if you're patient and careful everything lines up nicely. Is the pocket necessary to fit a part in? It won't really save much weight in Hdpe.

[Revsmin]

I don't think you can laser HDPE

You can, just not with a cheap laser. It has to be done with a powerful laser VERY quickly so the plastic doesn't melt. But I agree, doing it by hand is the best option

[maddox10]

Up to 5mm HDPE can be lasered with a light laser setup that can cut plywood.

Thicker is less easy and requires a lot more power driving up the cost.

In short , unless funds are abundant, start cutting and drilling.

[overkill]

How about waterjet cutting? No heat involved, just as accurate and if the operator is any good the cut edges will be almost as smooth as laser. Waterjet cutting should get cheaper than laser as the material thickness increases - I think Glen got ripped of badly on his HDPE job . I just paid less than that for a fair amount of titanium cutting, with some of that being as almost thick as his HDPE.

[Flag Captured]

I may try that, thanks Nick! Either that or just attempting to cut by hand if I can gain access to the correct tools...
The stuff is 10mm so might be the best way forward really. Almost finished the Cad now as well, still weighing up whether to have the side panels in HDPE or aluminium, but will have to see what it's like weight-wise!



In almost entirely unrelated news, the beetleweight survived its first event! Fhqwhgads somehow managed to take home a win in one battle at the Iron Games yesterday, as well as just generally shambling about the place, but was great fun in doing so! Was knocked out of the competition in round one by Fat Lip, but wasn't an unexpected result in the slightest!






The motors are surprisingly torquey and powerful, even on 3s, but the wheels let me down because I had very little grip! Even so though, great event and it really was enjoyable! Will try to make it down to Whitwick if I can scrounge a lift down or something, give it another run and see if the spinners can actually break it this time, instead of themselves! Pointing that at nobody in particular *coughcoughLynxcoughcough*

[mrsam]

I take full responsibility for that win seeing as it was my battery and cable ties holding it together aha.

Lynx had such a bad day, I can *hopefully* get down to Whitwick and you can fight it spinning at more than 4 rpm.

[Flag Captured]

Haha to be honest I think the chassis was the only thing of mine in the thing! Going to look at replacing that wood with 15-20mm HDPE so there should be less worry of it getting wrecked quickly haha. Don't know if I'll get chance to do it this week though, but either way I'll try and bring it down!

[gizz]

The cable ties didnt hold up? What the heck!