Hi Guys, I’m new, my names Tom nice to meet you all!
The project I am going to start working on is a Featherweight Combat Robot for the Australian Robowars Nationals in October. I have limited construction skills but I’ve tried to make my design as simple as possible. My (incomplete) CAD is below:
I’m hoping to use the mitre saw to cut steel angle of 3mm thickness
Would the bandsaw be able to cut through some 3mm steel sheet for the base? I’m not too familiar with its specifications and I couldn’t find anything on the net.
I’m also hoping to learn some welding a bit down the track but the design is primarily bolt-together.
If anyone has any feedback or wants to join in the project that’s all good, otherwise I’ll see you at the space!
Was it you that dropped by today? Sorry I spent longer than I said I would if it was, I’m really bad at estimating times.
The mitre saw can only cut wood unfortunately. The bandsaw and blade are also only rated for wood, you could get away with thin aluminium but probably not 3mm steel. We do have a metal cut off saw but don’t think it can do mitre cuts on it edit: it can do 0-45 degree cuts. We also have two angle grinders and a bunch of hacksaws to cut with.
I’m trying to learn welding myself at the moment too. If you want to learn to weld I can show you what little I know and you can learn with me.
Could you explain a bit on your vision of how it will work? I can’t get much from the CAD shots. Am I right interpreting the diagrams are of the bot upside down?
I should be pretty much free all of this coming week and I’ll probably be down at the space so if you want access let me know so I can try come at a semi-reliable time.
Yep that was me was just scoping out the tools today to see what I’d be able to use. Thanks for the info, my angles are all 45 degree so the cut-off saw should work! I actually switched to 5mm Aluminium sheet for the top and bottom, so the jigsaw should work for that.
I’m definitely keen to get access in the coming week, if you could let me know when you plan to open the space I’ll make sure I’m free at those times.
Here is a side view of the robot hopefully it helps, the robot is not upside down in the CAD images. The red wheels drive the robot, the purple wheel spins the drum using friction and the drum will have teeth to catch on the opponent. Currently the front just drags along the ground, but the torque from the rear wheels normally lifts the front of the robot a bit anyway.
Ah, so the top was just taken off in the diagram. I can see how it works now.
We have jigsaws but you might want to get some fresh blades. Last time I checked (which was about 3 months ago) we only had one well used blade left and it had been like that since last year.
I’ll post space opening times so look out for those.
