First time builder. please have a look and share your knowledge

[typhoon_driver]

I suspect a lot of your questions would be answered by the riobots manual (google it). The guys that built minotaur in the US put a lengthy manual together to help people get into bot building. A lot of it will be international in terms of components etc but it should give you a good handle on the basics. I've never read it cover to cover but have skimmed it.

As far as your first machine, if you plan to build a basic lifter with a drive train, which is a good starting point, then I'd probably go with the box section frame welded up with paneling bolted on. The modern way to build bots is to get a monocoque laser cut and then welded together but putting together a CAD design for such a machine requires a good bit of knowledge to get it right. A box section chassis allows you to easily add and remove things as you go along.

As far as scavenging goes, you might get lucky and stumble across hardox in it's professional form in a digger bucket or truck body being used for what it was designed for, a wearplate application. Either way steel in those uses is likely to be higher grade although it will probably be on the thick side.

The two main issues you'll come across in building bots is weight and money. There is never enough of either to do exactly what you want to do.

[Runsler]

The two main issues you'll come across in building bots is weight and money. There is never enough of either to do exactly what you want to do.

And time.
Don't forget the "a bot is never finished if the fight isn't in the next 24 hours, and even then not always"-phenomenon.



One more note on the actual build:
With a simple box-shape bot and first build, it is somewhat unlikely for you to get into Robot Wars, just because it is a TV-Show.
But not aiming for that in the first build might be a wise idea, so you can assume you'll be on other heavy fights. And as far as i know (might be wrong here, still a noob myself and only read stuff like that) there are currently no really spinner proof heavyweight-arenas in UK or europe. So there is a really good chance you won't fight vs. them.

You can try to put that into your design, too... way less front/side armor needed when there are no spinners around.
Maybe could get away even on a heavyweight with HDPE there, which is easier to work with (for some people, that is... depending on metalwork experience, but you could use woodworking tools for HDPE. just be ready for plastic everywhere. Used a padsaw on 20mm HDPE yesterday, and well... hard to cut a line you can't see because of the dirt you fabricate) and cheaper. Also needed much thicker than steel, but yeah... just want to give you an option to think about