How bad of an idea is this?

**Limitaneus** · 8th October 2016, 13:49

Hello! I've been cooking up a design recently and I'd like some input from people who even slightly know what they're talking about, since I, er, don't. At all. Oh well.

Basic plan is to ape Barber-Ous but go a bit bigger. How much bigger? Well, my plan was to nab a stainless steel beer keg and use that for the drum section instead, along with some dirty great teeth made out of, I dunno, probably Hardox. Everyone uses Hardox now. It's like coke was back in the Thatcher years; not something you wanted per se, but almost necessary to live through the madness of the age.

Sorry, I get sidetracked easily. A 50-litre EuroKeg of the kind I intend to use (for reasons other than the fact that I can get them for cheap, I assure you) weighs, according to this 'ere distributor, 11.8kg, so I've planned for the actual drum itself (with the addition of all the teeth and so on) to come to a max of 20kg. I reckon I could bump that up by welding panels onto it, but I don't know whether I'd even want to. Anyway, the plan is to get that spinning as fast as possible around a central axle, have two sturdy wheels at the side, and put any allowed weight into getting the drum moving even faster. What I want to know is this: will it suck as an idea, rip itself apart due to the forces involved, or actually sort of work? A bit? Ish?

I have to be honest, this is my first attempt at a competitive robot design. Please don't go easy on me. Tell me what I need to know so that I can learn from this and improve. =]

**maddox10** · 8th October 2016, 14:33

The wall of such a keg is waaaaaay to thin to withstand even an attack from a decent featherweight spinner.

**typhoon_driver** · 8th October 2016, 14:43

As Mario says, the material is simply too thin. One hit from near enough any machine would dent it.

**Limitaneus** · 8th October 2016, 14:54

Righto. I thought that might be an issue. I did want to make a big, tall drumbot, but it might be worth just having the spinning section be, like, just a Hardox or wear plate octagon with some teeth on it that spins around. I'm getting the image of something rather... agricultural, and to be honest I'm completely fine with that.

**Tim The Plumber** · 8th October 2016, 15:00

Whilst on the theme of people who don't know what they are doing....

I am looking at mobility scooters as a source of running gear for a bot. Any suggestions? Are they too weak? Too slow or what?

**craig_colliass** · 8th October 2016, 15:08

I would have a go!

The comments are right it would be too weak.
But it would be different and you could enter as a pub team!

I think the thing could work on TV, but I don't think you would necessarily get too far.
First thing find out as much as you can on how they got Barbarous to work then go from there.
good luck

**typhoon_driver** · 8th October 2016, 15:49

Mobility scooters aren't of much use unless you go for a huge wheel like chimera. It's been years since they have been the go to motor.

**maddox10** · 8th October 2016, 16:09

Or the NPC64's. In theory also mobility scooter motors, but for heavyweight US citizens.

Most wheelchair and mobility scoter motors over here are rather weak, with the 250-350W @24V rating.

The old "series 6-7 standard " was a 750W rated motor, the now no longer available Bosch 750 GPA. Just to give an idea of what's "normal".

**Rapidrory** · 8th October 2016, 16:53

A super easy and powerful, albeit a slightly more expensive option is to use these: http://ampflow.com/wheelmotors.htm

The F30-400-G with the 6 inch wheel is probably the most suitable for combat. Very much a plug and play solution; doesn't need any modifications to use.