Wooden Robot Class

[ewan]

So would this mean use of metal angle brackets/frame members is disallowed- only screws and wood to wood joints are permitted?

[razerdave]

Thats how I was planning to do it. I do it with HDPE blocks in Hell's Angel because the armour isn't thick enough for a screw through the edge.

[typhoon_driver]

It's a challenge gentlemen. That's why I would advocate no metal angle as well as plate and sheet. Bolts, screws, nuts, washers etc are fine. But it makes it far more challenging to have to work out how best to bolt it all together.

And remember wood has a very low relative density so going for some 20mm thick wood planels all over or just regular 2 by 4s would work.

The only metal I believe we should allow should be entirely for the weapon systems and drive systems. so any cogs, gears, pneumatics, motors etc are all good but the structure of the robots and armour etc is wood based and the weaponry should have come from woodwork tools (be they power or hand).

I will agree to a metal box for electronics if people so wish

[razerdave]

If its only wood working tools then I can't do my idea. I had planned to have something like the Rex's robot challenge robot that rex himself made with the wiper motor powered lifter. If the flipper was made from a wood panel rather than a metal one, would it be accepted ?

I would also have a damaging weapn, a saw on the back. It would look like a cross between Cassius and Roadblock

[swanaldo]

It's a challenge gentlemen. That's why I would advocate no metal angle as well as plate and sheet. Bolts, screws, nuts, washers etc are fine. But it makes it far more challenging to have to work out how best to bolt it all together.

And remember wood has a very low relative density so going for some 20mm thick wood planels all over or just regular 2 by 4s would work.

The only metal I believe we should allow should be entirely for the weapon systems and drive systems. so any cogs, gears, pneumatics, motors etc are all good but the structure of the robots and armour etc is wood based and the weaponry should have come from woodwork tools (be they power or hand).

I will agree to a metal box for electronics if people so wish

Thats it.

[ewan]

I do think the just wood thing is a good concept as it'd spur creativity, the issue is getting all of this into easily understood writing as there'd inevitably be lots of ins and outs over tool permissibility (e.g. a set of chisels angled to the ground would basically be a metal wedge, but would that be allowed?).

Also, what about li-pos? Personally I think they should be allowed on the basis of availability, price and transferability to other projects, but they would probably require a metal box.

[typhoon_driver]

wood chisels as ramps etc would be cool. using motors and pneumatics for internal workings should be ok so building a featherweight flipper would be fine. In fact it would add a whole bunch of challenges to get the panels strong enough

I'm the biggest supporter of lipo but i'm not sure that they are appropriate for a wooden bot

[Max]

I don't think it should be wood working tools only as for spinning weapons you can't use circular saw blades as they shatter and I think the cool thing about wooden armour is it gets destroyed by spinning weapons, as dave says you also can't have lifter.

I think don't limit people's imaginations too much.

[ewan]

I think the shattering circular saws thing has been way too over-hyped.. if you're running spinning discs at all it shouldn't matter one bit if one shatters

[Ellis]

I think don't limit people's imaginations too much.

The point of going as wood-orientated as possible is to force people to use their imagination! To start allowing things found in normal weight classes is to ultimately reduce creativity. I don't see limitations as limiting imagination at all, I see it as helping it!

As I have said, the closer this class gets to standard FW combat the less interesting and attractive it becomes.