Pulverizer Build Diary

[Andy]

The featherweight design looks pretty cool, and quite unique too which is always nice, good luck building it

[Mega Masher]

Hey guys , been looking around for metal for the chassis. Does this inch square box section steel look good enough, or in weight. The design is like the original idea of a 40cm diameter pizza, and will be 2 hoops made out out of box section steel, held together with around 10 3cm uprights. Here is the link: http://m.diy.com/mt/www.diy.com/nav/...n_jtt_redirect
Tell me what you think before it's to late

[maddox10]

Several remarks.

1) No wall thickness mentioned
2) 2m long ain't industrial standard, it's retail standard
3) Varnished, again retail standard.

This means it's probably a soft mild steel, thin walled (1 maybe 2mm thick if you're lucky, with anything in between).
It will do the job, but any decent spinner will chew it up as if it's candy.
Also, for 2 meter bought at a retailer, I can buy 6 or even 12m unvarnished normal mild steel at a steel-depot.

[typhoon_driver]

I would pay head to marios advice. Look in the yellow pages or online for a metal stockist nearby and phone them up direct. When I ordered up some mild steel tubing even though the delivery price was the same as the material cost I ended up with a good 18m of tube for far less than a commercial entity would charge (they came in 6m lengths)

[Mega Masher]

Just saying, i will only need around 2 metres of tubing for this build.

[maddox10]

Just saying, i will only need around 2 metres of tubing for this build.

And? 2 meters of box section for £20, or 6m of the same dimensioned box section for £20.
Worst case scenario you'll sell the surplus for £5, and put £5 in your pocket.

But me, I prefer to have a surplus in my basement/workshop/gardenstoragebox.

[Mega Masher]

Also, what sort of thickness of wall would you reccomend, bearing in mind i will have steel plate and then polycarbonate on top for armour. It will need to be able to take some high-speed hits as i will attach the teeth to the uprights.

(haha....double post!....)

[Max]

Just a couple of questions, How do you plan on bending it into a perfect circle? Are you planning to weld the box section together? How are you going to mount these rings onto bearings so it can spin? And finally how do you plan on getting drive to the rings so they spin?
For box section I would find your local metal workers and pop them a visit explain what you are doing and try to buy the steel from them, they could probably cut you off a 2m length.

[Mega Masher]

How do you plan on bending it into a perfect circle?

To be honest, i have no idea (by the way, it's not an outer shell spinner like LS4, the whole robot spins around at crazy speeds and once in each rotation, the on board computer turns off a motor for 90 degrees. It's complicated but it should work ).

[Liftoff]

To be honest, i have no idea

I wouldn't attempt to bend it myself without the correct bender for square tubing, most probably it'll collapse, more so if its a thin walled section. But you could find a pipe bending shop in your area and they'll do the job for you, probably you won't even need to buy the material as they will have themselves.
It will be neater than if you try to cut/weld it to shape and saves you a lot of sweat!
ps. I dont know the local costs involved tho!