A Shell for the Phoenix

Let's Make Robots Projects Showcase
1

Hiya…

I decided to build a shell for the pheonix because I was sorta itching to make something that kinda made it look a bit better covering all the electronics bits, although I like to seem the guts of things also, but I wanted to kinda enter it into the contest.

So here’s what I have, its Jim sent me the cad drawing for the Phoenix body, and I took that in Rhino 3d and rendered the image and ended up printing it out in photoshop first checking to see if the dimensions were accurate, once that was done I overlayed that cut out image onto a piece of 8th inch lexan and cut it out, then I wanted some sorta organic look per say and started to lay large Easter eggs as the body and that didn’t work so well with the fiberglass so I decided to use 2 spray paint caps as the base.

I cut up a white t-shirt and stretched it over the top so there weren’t any wrinkles and saturated that in resin, let it dry, then used some real fiberglass 2 more layers on top, let that dry then caked the thing with bondo once the bondo was still sorta tacky i started sanding it with 80 grit to remove most of it.

Finished it off with 220… “at this point it really doesn’t have to be perfect” as its a mold just make sure its flat.

I was pondering the idea about what to cover it to make it release easy, saran rap kinda gets eatin by the fiberglass resin… then it was tinfoil “commonly used to make sub boxes in spare tire wells in trunks” although since this was much smaller the wrinkles in the tin wouldn’t look right… I actually got some parfin wax and put it in a bowl and heated the bowl and painted the wax on… surprisingly it worked quite well you might have to re-apply the wax every 3 or so molds as that fiberglass resin gets warm when it cure’s…

I planned on using actual carbon fiber weave but at 65$ a yard I thought about passing …

currently these things are 2 layer’s and are quite sturdy for a top… if they were 3 layers you can stand on it "I tried’

I found out if you lay the fiberglass weave at a 45 degree angle to the project your working on you can get some pretty nice bends without kinks!

I plan on making a couple of these for $hit’s and grins and broadin my fiberglass experience…

Oh one other thing I forgot to mention was the base of the robot I was planning on trying to make it all fiberglass although I think it would be better if i used that abs plastic that Xan and Zenta used for their robots and cut out a shape of the pheonix body so that it was a 8th inch or so thin shape so that I can insert that into the top as a sorta ring that went around the base of it…Then fiberglass that ring onto each top i build… infact i could probably make it out of fiberglass to begin with…

Anyway idea’s and or comments welcome!

I plan on sanding it, using some body filler and using some automotive basecoat/clear coat and spray it with the HVLP spray gun i have that I used to paint 4 cars already with and make it bling bling looking… … or hit it with a can of textured hammered spray paint.

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4704/shell1k.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8443/shell2m.jpg
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/2662/shell3.jpg

Lemme know if this is contest worthy :slight_smile:

–Aaron

2

Might make a good project to try some shell vacuum forming like below:

studiocreations.com/howto/vacuumforming/

3

Hey zoomcat,

Yeah I saw that exact same link, I wanted to also try that as the mold I have is pretty universal and shaped to take a formed piece of plastic quite easily… I might actually try that…

I think im going to pick up some plaster and make a negative mold of it, so i can lay the fiberglass inside it and pull it out, as I really don’t need the inside of the mold to be smooth, the outside will, so there is less work for me when I paint them…

I’m itching to make it out of carbon fiber or Kevlar as its 1/3rd the cost and still looks really cool

4

I think a point to be made is that it is probably much more important to make the shell as light weight as possible for the hex. Fiberglass is heavy and building for bullet proof strength is unneeded. Make the negative plaster shell mold, then look at laying in very light weight materials to make the shell (you could also lay on the outside of the current mold). I helped an art student friend make replacement lamp shades for a vintage art deco lamp using paper and thinned white glue. You could make a ~plastic shell using layered tissue paper bonded with the thinned white glue, letting it dry between layers. Hexes need very light weight construction due to the way their weight is supported by the legs. When fiberglass is used in homebuilt aircraft, every excess drop of resin is squeegeed out of the fiberglass to save weight.

5

this thing cant weigh anymore then 4oz, its 2 layers with around 2oz of resin, its pretty thin.

–Aaron

6

4 ounces is almost 3 servos… :open_mouth:

7

… How about I measure it…cause it really doesn’t weigh that much.

8

I’d say that 1 ounce or less would be a good weight to shoot for the shell.

9

Have you heard about Shapelock? It is what crabfu uses to make the shells on his swashbot 3, and it is molded by hand, which can cause a really organic looking shell. This came out really well here shapelock.com/

10

Zoomkat,

Yeah the thing doesn’t weigh more then a servo by far… apparently my estimates from before were lacking actual numbers …:astonished:ops

Shevek, I have heard of shapelock before someone mentioned it in another thread, I think it would be great if you had a way of using it to make fiberglass molds… although I think personally it’s kinda cheesy stuff… I think it has its use for things…

That swashbot is very cool looking a bit too cute if you ask me, and the guy used that shapelock stuff pretty nicely, although I think i’m going to stick with fiberglass or vac forming.

I was going to pick up some plaster and make a negative mold and lay fiberglass inside it so i can make my shell in 1 part without letting the resin dry in between steps.

–Aaron