Thread: Team Death - New Heavyweight

Another sunday, which means another update!

Today we went through the bounty of goods I acquired through the week as noted in last weeks update. I managed to get hold of everything we needed!
We started by getting out the exhaust brackets, which are going to hold the motors in place. As it turns out the 80mm we thought would work was just a little too snug. Nothing a bit of brute force didn't fix, Colin bent out the bracket to expand it overall, before bashing in each at the bottom so it would go around the motor, then tuck back into itself to fit into the bottom half and fit the nuts in over it (image 1).
Next came the fairly simple task of welding the first bracket into the machine, and after making sure the position was correct for the chain to the wheel sprocket. With a little help from a cut off bit of metal, we raised the bracket slightly up so its more inline without height difference to aid the chain working effectively.
Unfortunately the second bracket wasn't quite so easy, We decided to mount it on the outside of the machine (image 2), and only after welding it in with the motor in place, did we realise that we couldn't actually get the motor back out of the machine, as there is a certain movement needed to get it back out which we'd blocked off. A quick bit of angle grinding later, the weld was broken and then it was rewelded to much greater success within the machine (image 3).
We then attached one of the 9 teeth sprockets I had collected just a few days beforehand, to the motor, this went on first time, so we got on with the next task - building a chain!
We needed to build a suitable chain, as the chain I got was the right size, except it was all off cuts and other such the company had no use for, but I managed to get the whole order £10 cheaper due to that! We got plenty of extra links though to build them up to what we needed, using as few of the cuts as possible as the less extra links we put into a single chain, hopefully the stronger it'll be.

By the end of the day, we managed to mount a motor and use the chain we put together to test run the motor and ensure the wheel moved freely, for the first time, under its own power. The battery used to test was 12V, and the motor is 24V - but the test result was more than I think we both expected! Not sure if running it at the 24V will result in more speed, improve the torque / pushing power, or both.
The chain will be later refined and made more taut, as it currently waves around a bit and bashes slightly into the metal below - this may also need a chain guard fitting so even when its bashed heavily, it'll still not damage anything. The test also revealed the wheel is still ever so slightly catching at a certain point in the circle, so that'll need grinding off.
We recorded a video of the test, the first time anything has been run under its own power;

Todays images;
Colin bashing one of the exhaust brackets, the bracket on the outside of the bot that later proved to be unworkable, the two brackets in working position within the bot, and finally the wheel, chain and motor all in place.

Next thing to do is essentially duplicating everything on the other side of the bot and getting that wheel going. We'll also hopefully make some decisions about the route to go for certain electronics like ESCs and other such!