Can a brick be successful?

[Flag Captured]

Adding to Alex's post top, it is very doable but you've got to consider it's all about driving, you need to make up for the weapon deficiency in every other aspect - speed, control, power, armour...

I'm planning to upgrade the new HW2 into something more than just a pusher, but it's only going to be as an aid to the pushing ability, partly because I want an active weapon, but mostly because to have a successful pusher, you need to be a half decent driver, which I'm definitely not with robots!

[daveimi]

Oh wow I can do wood! Grandad is a scultpor so I have endless supplies of 12mm ply and 2x2. So do you reckon a wooden brick with a steel wedge bolted on the front? I could make a few spare wedges?

[Flag Captured]

HDPE inner chassis, wood outer armour and steel wedge, 4WD with 4 drills... I bet that'd be a very tough little machine! Not sure I'd go for an all wood machine in full competition, since it does splinter but that sounds a great idea on the whole. Makes repairs easier too with a bolt on portion of wooden armour instead of having to take apart your chassis. Especially with spinners being what they are now, I'm not sure I'd trust wood on it's own...

[daveimi]

When Block of Wood and Johnny 2x4 entered the champs how did they do?

[typhoon_driver]

Usually came out in pieces from memory but they were mostly wood. Make the substructure from steel and strap 2 inch wood all around and you should have a decent go at it.

[mrsam]

A lot of good advice going around, the thing is with spinners is that they are now so powerful it's not enough to have just a complete Hardox brick, it's better to use Hdpe/wood or something similar as a bolted together chassis that you can easily remove and replace a damaged panel from. As tough as Hardwired 2 was a massive hit from 720 basically wrote the chassis off, whereas Loki took a huge amount of punishment and managed to still come 2nd in the annihilator.

To answer your question as well, Hatchet was end tapped with high tensile m6 bolts ( 50mm long if i remember right) and that fought a dangerous spinner in every qualifying fight and took no significant structural damage, the Hdpe got ground away and torn up but the overall chassis is still being used. I used some 3mm aluminium angle brackets around the back corners to reinforce as well, took a huge hit from Drumroll which threw Hatchet a good 2 feet in the air and upside down and the end tapped corner didn't budge.

At this year champs Endeavour had thick wooden blocks on the sides to fight spinners and whilst they got torn up the actual chassis of the machine took no damage that i could see, might be something you could look at.

[mrsam]

Got some pics of the damage to Hatchet after my 2nd fight with Binky, it looks quite bad but that chassis is still being used quite happily.

[Eventorizon]

To answer your question as well, Hatchet was end tapped with high tensile m6 bolts ( 50mm long if i remember right) and that fought a dangerous spinner in every qualifying fight and took no significant structural damage, the Hdpe got ground away and torn up but the overall chassis is still being used. I used some 3mm aluminium angle brackets around the back corners to reinforce as well, took a huge hit from Drumroll which threw Hatchet a good 2 feet in the air and upside down and the end tapped corner didn't budge.

Its not that simple. The machine came out of every fight in one piece. But since I have been the one who is repairing and upgrading its armour I have to say that its not the machine it came to the champs as. None of the machine is square anymore. Every original bulkhead is twisted. The whole machine is on slant from left to right. The chain that once ran straight is now at a slight angle.

I would suggest a core metal structure of welded steel (Box or sheet) with thick HDPE outer armour which is attached by countersunk M8 or M10 bolts and can be easily replaced. So long as the core remains undamaged then you will be good to go for many, many fights.

[daveimi]

OK that's great thanks. Thinking about getting a local machine shop to weld me something up. Going to go and inquire this week about monies lol.

[Garfie489]

As Matt said, Defectors one of the robots built mainly out of HDPE (with an Ali frame).

Defector had 13 fights in total, and fought against a few spinners (Rango, 720, Galactus, Massacre, and LS4). Ill show you how it fared throughout the tournament.

Before Fighting



After 4 fights (including LS4)



After 7 fights (including 720)



After 13 fights (including Rango)



It looks like its in a very bad state now, but the armour itself is in good shape. However the joins was what let it down, and it doesnt have replaceable armour. The welds had got busted by the end, and alot of the threads for the bolts aswell.

However if you make a robot with "Throw away armour" as it where, it would be a very good option as the frame should stay in good condition. You then just place new (and cheap) armour onto where the old got damaged from.

That said, id recommend a metal scoop, purely out of sharpness and its ability to stay sharp through a fight.

Should also state, if id needed to of fought again - Defector was still in a fully working condition.