RogueTwo Robots

**PJ-27** · 20th January 2015, 12:57

Barrel nuts! That's a good idea!

**RogueTwoRobots** · 20th January 2015, 22:30

Originally Posted by PJ-27

Barrel nuts! That's a good idea!

I know. Completely original idea that just popped into my head. Not influenced at all by any Spanish Costello people. Nope. Not one bit. Like, ever.

But yeah it seems the most bulletproof method as you'd have to have the barrels (which are 16mm wide in my case) rip through the plastic in order for the fixing to fail. Also allows me to get a couple of machines back together that I thought would require new chassis parts due to threads and inserts wearing away.

Think I'll stick to bike tyre for MDF-floored events then. The Banebots seem to last better on the metal-floored arena, and since that's the most important event, that's good enough for me.

**Ellis** · 20th January 2015, 14:01

Been using barrelnuts for years, they are (imo) by far the best way to join plastic. All of Tormenta 2 is built with barrelnuts and not a single one has failed in 5 full combat events and countless live events.

**geeza** · 20th January 2015, 16:48

I had the same issues with db10s wheels during testing on the Mdf last year, lasting 2 fights at most.

**Mouldy** · 20th January 2015, 22:58

You copied someone else? Cant help but feel kinda cheated on now lol

Banebots wheels are awesome for grip, but require constant maintenance... after every fight i clean 720s wheels with solvent, and get through 2 sets of wheels per champs... too much maintenance for a non pushy bot... thats why ive gone to colsons

**Mega Masher** · 21st January 2015, 23:43

Is drumroll gonna have slanted sides this year?

**RogueTwoRobots** · 19th March 2015, 00:01

Update

Alrighty! Time to kick this thing back into gear. Will be travelling down to Birmingham 3 weeks today, and there is much to be done! After weeks of planning, parts ordering and frustration at not being able to get back to my shed, I was finally able to start building on Monday and make a dent in the massive to-do list.

So the bot is getting a new aluminium chassis this year as last year's was kinda gubbed. Same overall design as last year's but going up to 20mm thickness 6082 T6 grade, and dropping the chassis height down to 75mm to facilitate a move to 98mm Banebots wheels. Only problem is that the minimum height of metal pieces you can get from Aluminium Warehouse is 100mm, so most of Monday was spent milling, sanding and filing the body sections down to 75mm and to the correct lengths:

This is where the size limitations of the mill show up; I wasn't able to do a full pass along the length of the bulkhead, so had to mill this fetching slot for the most part and then make a couple of cuts with the hacksaw and clean up the edges:

Got the baseplate cut and mounted on Monday too and bolted the chassis together. Base is currently 3mm steel but as of today, the chassis on its own is weighing in at 3.9kg so it might need to get changed out for something lighter. Here's a basic comparison with the old chassis:

Yesterday I made a start on getting things mounted. First up were the Banebots motors; these are a right pain to get lined up correctly for milling and drilling, especially since I'm just eyeballing everything at the moment, so I had to rejig a few holes and whatnot to get things mounted properly but got there eventually:

Also cut slots for divider sheets to fit into the chassis width-wise, rather than having solid bulkheads fitted. As with a lot of this robot, this particular feature is already present on 720 and 722, so it's only right that I do it on the 718...err...Drumroll build

Today focused on the finer details of a few parts. Cut a couple of holes in the battery divider for ESC and LED cables to pass through, a bit nicer than last year's cheese grade ali effort. The random larger hole in the middle of the top cutout is where I went in too far with the countersink when chamfering the edges, so I turned it into a design feature to cover up the error :P

I also bored out and grub-screwedified the timing pulleys for the brushless motor and sorted out the mount for the related ESC. Was going to get the mount for the brushless motor made too but, as I went to fit it to the mill, I discovered my new boring head tool set was the wrong type and wouldn't fit, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. I used the remaining time to tidy up the edges of the baseplate, cut a recess in it at the front to accommodate the drum, and placed all the parts in to see how it looks:

The chassis has a size increase of 5mm in both length and width and although it doesn't sound much, it's just given that little bit more space in the robot for components and workings. Once the replacement boring head is here, I'll be able to bore the pockets for the drum shaft and brushless bearing and, hopefully, the drum will arrive tomorrow too, so by the end of the week I should have everything in place and then the focus will turn to the smaller, but numerous, tasks that always need done and always take ages.

Oh, and speaking of the drum: