Armour ideas / materials

[Ellis]

Either there or in Build Diaries. ^

As for drive, a set of argos drills will set you pack perhaps 25 quid. For that you get two motors with gearboxes attached. They aren't combat-ready, they need some tweaks, but nothing drastic. There are videos on the channel in my signature explaining how to make such a motor combat ready. It's a tad out of date in terms of what I have to share on how to make them rugged but it will do the job.

With 4 inch wheels and nominal voltage, you're looking at about 7mph with drills. If you change some of the gearbox internals (parts are cheap and easily available) you can up that to around 10mph quite easily. I will make a video about this someday.

Drill-alikes exist. The products from Gimson.co.uk are essentially drills in a more usable shape, i.e., mounting is easier as it comes with bolt holes. Price is higher, of course. Speeds will be the same as with drills, with the same slightly faster option should you want it.

There are a few much higher end (and more reliable) options, sadly nearly all only found in the US. "Banebots" and "Magnum" gearboxes and motors come to mind. Prices are doubled once again, and there is postage to think about, but they are fancy bits of kit.

There are options for custom gearboxes, though they will require some engineering. Typically you buy larger motors (generally lower RPM, more torque) than those found in drills and the like, then take a single stage reduction using gears from them to the wheel(s). Two-stage reductions are often needed because top speeds can be very high and torque low with single-stage reductions. Mario (maddox) is adept with custom gearboxes. I can't say I recommend this for a first build, but it's there.

A much less powerful but still viable option, though I know little about them, is "bosch 35"s. The 35 meaning watts I believe. They're found powering the seat adjustments in old jaguars, so ebay or the scrapyard might be your friend there. They aren't directly usable and they won't make for a powerful drive system, one could argue they're a little pointless these days, but again they'll make a robot move.

There are of course many many in-between options, but the above are some of the typical starting points for feathers.