Experience needed regarding FW Beater and Armor

[Runsler]

Pendulum uses a 20mm thick plate of toolox that is then watercut for the beater, with the ends turned to spin inside bearings. id say 20mm thickness its minimum, 250mm dia 300mm length is very big though, mines 145mm dia and 240mm side for comparison. Id avoid using multiple parts to make the beater weapon since itll just cause more weak points, id say 25mm thickness is safe if you do go with the size you want.

Yeah, the scetches already look... well, like an ice cone dropped on the side, to be honest. wish i could say "scary".
Problem is, i can't do the standard-beater-design. It will all be cut from one piece and stay as one piece, but in the middle will be an 8cm part where it is only axis, and not beater. can't avoid that... need that space for the weapon motor and to have a third point on the floor. the weapon got so big, and the only two wheels are so far on the other side of the bot, i think i'll need something to slide on somewhere in that region.
Could slide on the sides, too, but that would need way more weight, is more likely to get hit, and i'd have four points on the ground. somehow i think three points seem to be more stable, even more given the expected gyroscopic effects.
Also, trying to just move the weapon away from its motor would greatly increase the weight needed for armor, and even further increase the diameter of the weapon. And that one is already bigger than i wanted^^

But 25mm as minimum is a number i can work with, sounds good. And how wide would you make the spokes? just 25mm, too because that looks good? Or maybe there's a better way to do those than just rectangular?

Regarding fixing things together I wasn't sure which approach either, so I'm doing them all!

Using bolts where they will fit and screws everywhere else (lots and lots of screws). The HDPE I have doesn't take a thread very well, and I was worried that if I kept inserting and removing screws for maintenance they would get loose so I have a hinged trapdoor for access, going to try the inserts route for sealing it.

Trapdoor is a good idea, in my case i am going for an "inner shell" made from thin polycarbonate that can be taken out completely of the armor. "just" have to unscrew that and the weapon every time... not quiet sure if that is wise, but since i wanted to put that layer in there to save my esc etc. from at least some of the vibrations anyway, it seemed the easier way to do this. I'll see if it works.

(and next bot will be somewhat box-shaped. Really got enough of all these stupid angles and having to work around those.)

Anyway... so maybe just wood screws where i don't need to remove them often, and inserts where i do?
But what size of screws, and how many? every screw is some precious weight^^
Regarding that... are titanium screws a worthy idea, or doesn't the reduced weight count up for the (possibly?) reduced strenght?