Can you bond metal together instead of bolting/welding?

[daveimi]

As above really, do they do no more nails for box section?

[maddox10]

Rivets you mean. Yes it can be done, but it ain't easy.

[Eventorizon]

He means glue like this... http://www.amazon.co.uk/No-More-Nail...=no+more+nails

It might hold it but one slam and I can see you whole robot disintegrating. You would have to strip every surface back to bare if you wanted to put it back together and you would never have time at an event.

[maddox10]

Using glue to bond metal with reasonable succes, like most aircraft demonstrate, is perfectly possible.

There are some guidelines.

The surface has to be large enough and fit well.
The same surface has to be spotless clean, any indication of grease (even fingerprints) will weaken the joint.

Curing that kind of glue is to be done in a very controlled enviroment. The right temperature, airpressure , humidity and so on...

In short, except with the right tools, and knowledge using glue to build a robot will be more expensive than to use conventional methodes like welding, rivetting or bolting.

[daveimi]

Ok no worries, will start drilling the box section for bolts. Should really put some updates in build diary as have a half built heavy lol.

[typhoon_driver]

There is also soldering and brazing

[daveimi]

Welding and stuff is a bit hard for me, my trusty steed is the drill-n-bolt technique. My drilling tolerances are down to the nearest inch so you can appreciate building a heavy has been a stressful process so far. And I've only started building a heavy after getting bored with trying to make a Speed 600 'box and am skint. To my astonishment my Sabertooth 2x12 ran the wheelchair for a minute round the garden.

[Garfie489]

You can always ask others to weld for you.

I needed one of my motors welded up for Dystopia, so i went to the local garage and they welded it up for me for free. (admittedly being 19 and saying i fight robots seems to get me alot of goodies everywhere)

[Flag Captured]

(admittedly being 19 and saying i fight robots seems to get me alot of goodies everywhere)

Fancy sending some of that luck this way? I'm 18 and I just get raised eyebrows from people! Well, that and the odd handful of near-expired AA batteries, which is always a huge help.

On topic though, I'd say bolting it together is your best bet if you don't want to do welding... Either that, or I guess you could always use wood for now and learn to weld or something in the meantime? I know it's not ideal, but I guess it's an option!

[Garfie489]

Fancy sending some of that luck this way? I'm 18 and I just get raised eyebrows from people! Well, that and the odd handful of near-expired AA batteries, which is always a huge help.

To be fair (without being offensive), if you show a non roboteer some of your parts they could easily be part of say an RC plane. Even if you show people a full featherweight, many think of it as a cool little project. Whilst its interesting, they wouldnt go out of their way to help you. If it was a garage the motors you have look like toy motors to him, thus unless they are being really nice they would either refuse or laugh if id asked one of my feathers motors to be welded up.

However with a featherweight, everything inside it is bigger than people expect. You tell them what it is you need repairing and many are keen to find out, keen to see photos and videos and so on. Then you just simply chat them up abit into doing you a favour. My motors must be about 5kg and can only just be held in my hand, you show that to a car mechanic and they think what the hells a 19 year old got them for. Thus abit of talking later i get free stuff

Btw, you can always ask for another roboteer to do some welding. Dont know who can do it, or what people ask for but it may be cheaper than hiring a mechanic. - plus you can possibly barter with a roboteer.