Quote Originally Posted by Roland
Does that mean I'd have to dismantle drills and re-wire them? Do you attach the axel in the same way you'd attach a drill bit?
If I wanted to learn to weld, what would be the best way to learn?
My mother owns a soldering iron and solder for her stain glass, do you mean that sort of soldering iron and the mix lead solder?

Anyhow, thank you all, I'm sorry you're being bombarded with questions, and I'm sure a couple are flaming obvious, but I really want to know as much as I can before I start anything! You really are a helpful community.

-Roland
Ok - drills. Yeah. Get yourself a couple of cheap cordless drills, take them apart, and the motor/gearbox units are what you use to move your robot around - the batteries are often kind of cheap and bad, but cheap and you can take the plastic packaging off to make lighter, more compact battery packs. You attach them to the wheels by unscrewing the chuck - there's a reverse threaded screw inside there holding it on - and putting a wheel on in place. The blue wheels you can get from robochallenge or wherever - they're the ones almost everyone uses - fit on nicely in place of the chuck, you tighten the screw up, and job's a good 'un I think robochallenge.co.uk has plain drill motors and mounts for them as well as the wheels - and radio gear and other useful things for building robots with.

As for welding, your best bet is to find someone with a welder - mig is probably the easiest to get the hang of and is fine for most stuff - and get them to teach you the basics, then get hold of a welder of your own and practice

You'll be wanting a smaller electronics soldering iron ideally and a reel of flux core solder, you're joining wires and connectors.

Good luck with everything it's definitely doable to get a basic wedge robot together for the event at the end of September if you're into that idea.