new Roboteer asking for building tips and so on(First robot)

**JammyONE** · 22nd September 2010, 02:35

Just to let you know I grew up with robot wars coming home from school turning the T.V to BBC2 back then I was inspired to build a combat robot back then but i was just a child and didn't know how to build one but after finding this forum and having a good read I'm inspired again.

So to get to the point I'm building an invertible Rambot called Rukia. I want to build Rukia to be strong enough against Spinners and i have made a mistake on speed controller's I have a Sabertooth 25A Dual and the Motor's are speed 900 so yeah not going to work. I believe i need 2X Victor 883.

chassis - steel i think it's strong enough.

armor - i'm thinking of polycarbonate, kevlar, hardox or something else.

weapon - speed and strength and ramming shield if i have some Weight.

power - 18v or 24v NiCad or NiMh don't know yet

and yes i'm building my on gearbox.

**razerdave** · 22nd September 2010, 22:57

Hiya Lewis, and welcome to the forum

As the owner of a fully steel (and a little hardox) rambot, and having run speed 900's for a while now, I would highly recommend the victor 883's, the fans are sometimes suspect but generally speaking they are great speedos, they can dump as much current as you need into speed 900's in an instant. You will need a special mixer for the victors which is sold on the Robot Market Place website, because IFI speedos need a boosted signal to work, and the mixer does that.

**calumco** · 22nd September 2010, 23:34

dave im gonna be using 2 speed 900s with victors, but i didnt no about the mixer , u got a link for it? cheers

**typhoon_driver** · 23rd September 2010, 00:23

you can easily sell the sabretooth through the for sale section. I'm pretty sure that with an influx of new builders recently, there will be many people happy to take it off your hands

**JammyONE** · 23rd September 2010, 03:34

I like to here what mixer you recommend for the victors and is hardox easy to work with?

**razerdave** · 23rd September 2010, 07:24

Apparently you can now use either an single signal booster:
http://www.robotcombat.com/products/IFIW-SIG36.html

Or the mixer:
http://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/RL-IMX1.html

Less cabling for the mixer, but your call.

And hardox is a bit of a b!tch to work with, you can cut it with a good angle grinder, though you may wear out a few discs, and its very resistant to drilling, you really need cobalt drill bits or better and a lot of coolant.

**typhoon_driver** · 23rd September 2010, 10:03

hardox isn't too bad to work with if you get yourself a 230mm angle grinder and take it nice and easy. I've only burned through discs when I've tried to force my way through it. As dave mentioned, you'll need some cobalt drills to drill through it, plenty of coolant and be prepared to resharpen them every dozen holes or so

Don't need to bother ordering a signal booster. Make one yourself

viewtopic.php?f=111&t=3280&p=101274&hilit=victor#p 101274

**JammyONE** · 27th September 2010, 02:20

I like to ask more about Hardox. I know it's a type of Steel but what's the difference of Hardox to Steel and Stainless Steel.

**joey_picus** · 27th September 2010, 02:36

Short answer: it's stronger

Hardox is the brand name for a type of wearplate steel, it's extremely strong and hard stuff but marginally denser than 'normal' steel (roughly the same density as stainless) and - mounted correctly - is the armour of choice for withstanding most large spinning objects.