Hey everyone, long time no see, been really busy with work (5 days a week 5-9, paying off with $130 a week though ) anyway
today i went out and got material for the “skin” of the rover, sadly i wasn’t able to get any aluminum (a little too expensive at 30 for a 15 x 18 sheet, and i would need about 8 of those (150 for material alone) so i ended up going with some steel (:lol:) i did this for a few reasons, the aluminum that my local Homedepot and Lowes had was not only expensive, but it was too thin for my application, it would have buckled while trying to support the tracks, the steel i was able to get for relativiley cheap price ($69 for 2 24X24 sheets) its as thick as the SES brackets
yes yes, i know steel is a great deal heavier than aluminum but i have already solved that issue and i plan on cutting lightening holes in the side panels that will be on either side of the track, also, this will only be for the side panels due the the need for strength in them, i will be using something thinner and lighter for the rest of the bot
i know that my jigsaw at home will not be able to cut through this stuff so i am calling on my dad’s friend’s machine shop and will hopefully get in there this coming weekend , i will keep u guys updated on the progress
-Jared
ps. i will take lots of pictures at the machine shop to keep u guys satisfied
Well, long time no talk , u guys sure have been busy with all these threads, jeez
anyway, i wasn’t able to get the machine shop, but i did one thing better, i went out and bought my own band saw , 9 in. band saw for $99, so far its works excellent, and i have been able to cut through all the steel and aluminum so it seems i made an excellent purchase
anyway, let me know wat u think so far, i will get pictures of the L brackets that im getting later today that will be the back bone of the structure (broke the last chassis on accident , i trip and fell on it and the top 2 C channels snapped at the drill sholes )
anyway, let me know, i will be posting more images later today
Very nice band saw man It comes with a light? Thats wicked awesome! You can cut stuff in the dark now! I always wanted to do that because its safe, you know?
Very nice cuts. Far straighter than I expected Does the band saw have a straight edge you can use to make straight cuts? The rods are also very nice clean cut.
You thought of a solution for making the steel erm, not rusted looking?
Oh yea, i plan to do some night cutting defnatley, not only is it very safe, but it can wake some neighbors up too
as to the straight cuts, yes the band saw does have a straight edge but i cant use it. the working platform is too small to cut the steel as it is, nvm with a straight edge in the way. they are so straight because i drew them out on the steel before i cut them and simply followed the lines, the drawings arn’t shown on the steel sheet because that is my 2nd sheet that i have not cut yet, i had already cut out the side panel before i was thrinking enough to get the camera and take pictures
yes, the band saw did an incredible job with the rods, sliced thorugh them like a hot knife through butter, even the steel isnt a big challenge
the rust looking-ness, lol, i am going to file and sand the panels down, and remove the current rust, then im going to spray paint them to prevent them from rusting again (most likley black)
i bought it at my local lowes (like homedpot if its not around where you live)
maybe 10-15 minutes set up time and its ready. oh yea, i also bought a saw blade for metal (duh)
like i said though, works like a dream, runs nice and quiet wen ur not cutting anything, can talk normally to ppl even wen its on, even wen it is cutting something, it is still kinda quiet with the aluminum, steel is a bit louder
one recommendation, get 2-3 metal blades if ur going to be using steel, i have already lost quite a few teeth because of the steel, the aluminum was no problem though
excellent start on your next platform if I do say so
I do want mention about the rust though - I recently had to sand down my electrical panel box which was also plate steel and it rusted very quickly. You may want to put a stop the the rust as soon as you can otherwise you will have a larger cleanup later
Ty for the comments everyone, SN96 i wanted to go to my dads friends (not my dads) machine shop and have him teach me how to use a 3 axis mill to cut it out, but since i have not been able to get there and my father couldn’t give me a set date, i just went out and bought a band saw for this project and future projects
cwkoehler, yes, i know, rust is a very big problem with plate steel and after drilling all the holes for the stand offs and taking the pictures of the mostly assembled rover (i will post them later on ) i am going to disemble (sp) it and sand and spray paint it
i jusr realized i have an issue at hannd and that is how the track probably wont fit because the stand offs are only 1.5", however, i am just going to put spacers on them to make them fit, i will do the same thing with the passive idlers too (that is, wen i get them) this way the track will fit neatly inbetween the 2 sheets seperated by the stand offs
i am probably going to order the tracks, idlers, ad sprockets that i need at the end of this week, once i get my pay
From what I remember in his older thread, the aluminum plating was too expensive. I may go down the same rought depending on the price as well. But I’ll be sure to cut and use rust spraypaint quickly so not to rust.
yes, it is very expensive thats why i didn’t use it, also the aluminum that was available was too thin and would be all floppy and wouldn’t be able to hold up the weight of the robot
cwkoehler, its not the fact that i measured too quickly or didn’t take care in it. its the fact that i over looked the track size, i was focused on building the standoffs to hold the passive idlers in (they fit between 1.5" standoffs perfectly) and i looked over that important fact
it wasn’t i cut it wrong its that i overlooked something
Lol, going over measurements in my head and using two measuring tapes as a guide I realized my robot will be 14"
------------------
by l
12" l
l
Becuase I didnt add the 6" for the 3" tracks. Therefore my robots length is less than its width, which im hoping wont look as silly as I think, otherwise Im going to have to make the body an extra 2-4" longer to even things out
as we speak i am sanding the plate steel down with a palm sander, it is working beautifully , spray painting it too, gloss black (might put an evil skull or two on it later )
) anyway
, u guys sure have been busy with all these threads, jeez 
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Does the band saw have a straight edge you can use to make straight cuts? The rods are also very nice clean cut.
