close shaves???

[grant_ploughbot]

Yes, because it just stresses what can easily happen if you dont take proper precautions.

[RogueTwoRobots]

If it helps to remind us always to take care, and offer a chance for people to see where accidents could happen and allow them to safeguard against them then I don't see why it'd be a bad thing to have such info on here.

Yes the forum is viewed by the general public, those who are interested in joining in the sport, but surely we can't keep it all perfectly painted as a lovely hobby free from people having personal differences or accidents occuring. That'd be giving them an altered perspective of things. Having discussions such as this keeps us aware of the dangers that are always involved with combat robots

EDIT: What Grant said

[flippt]

I havent had any close shaves in my time building, but I did read a similar thread years ago with about a guy who was building a FBS (Which names I cant remember), and he had put his bot on a workingbench just about so the robot was leveled to his stomache. He had a spin test and the robot goes beserk and cuts up, and you might have guessed it, his stomache.
He survived though. Some might remeber this one better then I do, so fill in if somethings missing.

This are the stories that makes me a bit more conscious when it comes to weaponed 'bots.

[ukrobotics]

Near misses ? .. plenty! Though I forget most of them lol.

Probably my most scary personal encounter was when testing Rottweiler 2's weapon for the first time. It was a 12 abrasive angle grinder disc powered by a flymo engine. Back then I didnt have the tools or skills to make the necessary modifications myself so I gave the complete flymo strimmer to a local lawnmower repair place and asked them to shorten the pole and attach the disc close to the engine.

So I got it back when they'd finished and it looked the part so I bolted it to the frame of the robot and started up the engine. Revved it up to top speed and in a blink of an eye the disk came detached from the rotor, bounced off the robot frame and missed me by a few cm.

Upon closer inspection it turns out that their method of attaching the disc was simply to sandwich it between a washer and the original strimmer head. Clearly this wasnt up to the task of securing a big cutting disc as well; I'm guessing they didnt test it themselves before handing it over to me.

[muchalucha]

i was a bit rough getting a nicad ut of my FW , it had tamiya connectors and the 2 prongs just pulled staright out of the casing and welded themselves togethor ,i didnt dare touch it as i could see the insulation burning off! , in the end it stopped when the solder melted on on of the cells , wait , what tempreture does solder melt at!!!

[Mouldy]

caught my thumb in a gearbox and crushed my nail

Burnt a thread into my hand after grabing a 20mm bolt id just welded

burnt a piece of coper wire into my thumb after it shorted across two battery terminals

set my leg on fire

set my hair on fire

had turbulence's flipper go off when i was turning the gas on

had a pneumatic pipe burst infront of my face

had a fw's flipper fire onto my forehead and nock me out (first flipper- good job it was rubbish)

stuck my hand to a cold co2 bottle

droped a heavyweight on my toe n broke it

saw my robot drive itself of a pit bench (before fw's had to have links)

not bolted metal down on the pillar drill properly and sliced my thumb open when its snaged

had coolant go in my eye

.. i could go on but ive chosen to forget about alot of them, and im ALOT more cautious now

[grant_ploughbot]

Let mouldy in our workshop

[cliveb]

stagefright.(enough said)

[RogueTwoRobots]

droped a heavyweight on my toe n broke it

Your toe or the heavyweight?

[Mouldy]

toe.