FW- Crash Course

[RogueTwoRobots]

Just been re-reading the last few posts on this as I skimmed it earlier. The picture of your parts laid out on the wooden board......is that going to be the actual size of the robot? If so, I'd suggest moving the parts much closer together otherwise you're going to have issues keeping it in weight. A bonus is that the footprint of the robot will be more square, so it'll be less likely to steer like a boat.

If you're already planning that or the design necessitates a long baseplate, then just disregard the above

[BCartz]

its roughly the design, already thinking about making changes by making the front around the actuator angled so that would help me save some weight, once its been to one event probably make more changes, might make it a 4wd wedge with a front hinged actuating arm.

[BCartz]

so i left it a few days to have a think and im gonna change some more bits about the robot. originally it was supposed to be inspired by wheel big cheese with the front of the robot acting as a large lifter, how ever gonna change that to give the front a point and have a front hinged lifter instead.

those who have flippers and lifters how to you go about attaching your flippers/lifters and the points at which they pivot?

[BCartz]

update time

After some thinking ive mocked up a design fr how i want the chassis to go
(ignore the very poorly layed out cardboard)
133661046_321577422348201_803581582604950949_n.jpg133854011_463063394685504_4052922237336766831_n.jpg

i know how im gonna attach the side and rear panels together but im stuck on a few parts. first whats the best way to do the lifters hinge (front mounted) and in terms of threaded inserts for the top panel im guessing you just drill in the insert and a bolt can then be screwed in?

cheers

[Roboteernat]

When using the threaded inserts, there is a recommended drill to use. I think for m5 inserts it’s 7.8mm to 8mm drill. I usually countersink the top a bit as I use type D inserts to allow the bed to sit flush.
Hinge, either a bar that’s fitted to the hinged panel and then sits in holes drilled into the chassis, then use some shaft collars to stop sideways movement. A stronger method is to use bearing blocks that have grub screws to hold the bar, then use something to stop the bar moving out sideways. Again shaft collars or a block of material screwed covering the hole.

[BCartz]

ok cheers, the idea i had in my head was some small bulkheads to hold the bar

[Ocracoke]

Can I make an observation in that those wide L brackets aren't always the best at handling shock? The original version of Kaizen used them and they bent practically every time it was hit by something. May be better to use triangular blocks of HDPE with threaded inserts (as below) to bolt together with.

When using the threaded inserts, there is a recommended drill to use. I think for m5 inserts it’s 7.8mm to 8mm drill. I usually countersink the top a bit as I use type D inserts to allow the bed to sit flush.

M6 threaded inserts use 8mm holes to bed in with I am sure, M5s may use the same borehole diameter but I keep to M6s. The ones I use are also Type D. You drill the borehole into the material, use a hex key to wind the thread in (be careful, too much torque and they can sometimes shear which is a pain to remove) and then drill a hole in the panel to pass the bolt through to screw into the threaded insert.

As for the arm, depends on the thickness of the bar that the arm is supposed to pivot around but I can see U bolts attached to the arm which then bolt around the rod working here. So long as they were on the inside of mounting blocks, that would solve the arm not moving side to side. The disadvantage of this is that in order to allow for rotation, the bolts internal diameter would need to be slightly wider than the rod so the arm may move a little bit back and forth which isn't ideal.

Bearing blocks (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zinc-Allo...9/174574740571 for example), as Nat mentions, may work but in my experience, the housing material can shatter with a big enough side impact (I've had to replace all of them in the past on Jibril at EXR Bolton 2019 for example). In the FW weight class, that might not be as big a problem but in the MW class it was.