hi I'm 13 and quite new too and my first robot 'Armourdillo' used steel and ali and drilled them with normal drills but don't use cheap drills or wood/ stone drils as they are not stong enough.
Hi, you can cut metal with hacksaw or angle grinder. You can drill plastics, steel, ali, polycarbonate with the usual metal drillbit.Originally Posted by Roland
You can also use a jigsaw fitted with a metal cutting blade to cut aluminium, and possibly some thin steels. Handy if you don't have an angle grinder but get fed up with the repetitive sawing motion of a hacksaw.
Off-topic, but looking at your avatar image, do you have any Roland instruments or connection to the Roland brand? Or are you just using it because it's the same as your name?
Just curious as I recognised the logo from my Roland drum kit and was wondering if you played an instrument.
Ahaha, mainly to do with my name, but we do have a Roland speaker and a keyboard scattered around the house.
Not that it's important, but I sing. xD
It looks like I'm all set, my parents have offered to pay partially on tools, I have a majority of them anyway, and I'm hopefully going to get taught how to weld by my Grandpa.
Plus I have space to do it too! (Rather excited!)
Safety first as always though.
Thanks for the help so far.Any more advice is deeply appreciated, when I want to start building and need advice on that, should I keep it in this thread, or post a new thread in build diaries?
Wish I could sing properly
Sounds like you're off to a good start. In terms of space, I tend to build in my bedroom (I have to admit, my parents are very tolerant of this!) and only really go and work in the garden if what I need to do is a bit too much for in the house (sparks from grinding and such) so any space really should do
Definitely set up a build thread when you start building; I for one enjoy seeing and hearing how robots are coming together. You can either ask for advice in that thread or here, wherever you do we'll be happy to answer
An angle grinder is your best bet for cutting metal - they're not that expensive, get one, you'll find yourself using it a fair bit. Saves you a LOT of time, and there are materials you'll want to use at some point which really can't be done any other way without something like plasma/oxy-gas/waterjet/laser/whatever, like hardox.
As for drills - any decent HSS bit will do it, make sure to use a center punch and WD-40 or whatever as cutting fluid. You don't need to mess about with cobalt drills or anything until you're working with pretty high grade alloys.
An angle grinder is your best bet for cutting metal - they're not that expensive, get one, you'll find yourself using it a fair bit. Saves you a LOT of time, and there are materials you'll want to use at some point which really can't be done any other way without something like plasma/oxy-gas/waterjet/laser/whatever, like hardox.
As for drills - any decent HSS bit will do it, make sure to use a center punch and WD-40 or whatever as cutting fluid. You don't need to mess about with cobalt drills or anything until you're working with pretty high grade alloys.
So will a 30 quid Bosch angle grinder do the trick? Or should I go for something better quality?
Works for me
(well, mine's a Black & Decker but same difference)
HAHAHA! NEVER paid 30 quid for an angle grinder!! Any cheap angle grinder will work, you may have to replace it a bit more often but mine get a lot of use and last about 18monthsWorks for me
(well, mine's a Black & Decker but same difference)
Andy
Well I reckon mine was about £30 but I don't actually know as it was a present. Not that I'm complaining about having a more expensive model
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