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Here is part of the "team" that helped us make orbit balls, and all of our finished orbit balls!! We made 90 in total (I forgot we didnt have enough strips to make 100, so my last count was off). 10 Empty Cells, 17 Super Cells/Awards, 63 Moonrocks, and we have 20 regular Orbit Balls!! Let the games begin!!
Discussion
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02-07-2009 11:21 PM
OScubed
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
Many thanks to all the parents, team members, mentors, spouses of mentors, grandparents, and random people who just volunteered off the street to help make all these orbit balls. Here's to an awesome Rally!
Great job all! 
Color key:
Black are empty cells
Camo are super cells
Black/Red/White are moon rocks (as are all the store bought ones)
02-07-2009 11:41 PM
Gary.C
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
Greta job and that probably took a long time. I love the colors, they are sick
02-08-2009 03:51 AM
JVN
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
If they're anything like the real thing, a lot of them will be broken soon. You might want to make some more. 
02-08-2009 09:01 AM
skimoose
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
Fantastic!
After Scrimmage, please post an update on how well these balls held up to some robot rough-housing.
After all that effort, those Super Cell/Awards are going to be a valuable commodity! 
02-08-2009 09:10 AM
Koko Ed
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by John V-Neun
If they're anything like the real thing, a lot of them will be broken soon. You might want to make some more.
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02-08-2009 11:20 AM
OScubed
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
Ours will probably be more robust than the real ones. The real ones use a cheap plastic connector that is easily broken. These are pop-riveted together for each strip. Not to say they won't break - just that they're pretty tough. We're actually concerned that these will be more robust than the real balls which is why we're not replacing the few real ones we got so that we can use those for our official "testing".
Thanks also to Gus for the help with the video and instructions.
Cheers,
02-08-2009 02:38 PM
JVN
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by Koko Ed
Way to kill the vibe, John.
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Sorry, it is unfair of me to vent my Orbit Ball related frustrations here.
JV
02-08-2009 03:11 PM
Koko Ed
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by John V-Neun
Sorry, it is unfair of me to vent my Orbit Ball related frustrations here.
JV |
Our robot just turned some of our orbit balls to masses of broken plastic and fabric.
02-08-2009 06:19 PM
Cynette
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by John V-Neun
If they're anything like the real thing, a lot of them will be broken soon. You might want to make some more.
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Originally Posted by Koko Ed
Our robot just turned some of our orbit balls to masses of broken plastic and fabric.
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02-08-2009 06:41 PM
Koko Ed
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by Cynette
It's ok...Gentlemen, we can rebuild them. We have the technology. We have the capability to make FIRST's best orbit balls. Better than they were before. Better. Stronger. Faster.
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02-08-2009 07:11 PM
GaryVoshol
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by Cynette
It's ok...Gentlemen, we can rebuild them. We have the technology. We have the capability to make FIRST's best orbit balls. Better than they were before. Better. Stronger. Faster.
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Originally Posted by Koko Ed
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OK boys and girls under the age of 25, what's Cynette's quote from?
02-08-2009 08:35 PM
meastman
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
Now time to start building the robot 
02-08-2009 08:47 PM
Cynette
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by meastman
Now time to start building the robot
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Oh my, I knew we were forgetting something!
02-08-2009 08:52 PM
KidneyMerchant
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by GaryVoshol
Geeze, ain't nobody that appreciates good allusion anymore.
OK boys and girls under the age of 25, what's Cynette's quote from? |
Do I win?
02-08-2009 10:10 PM
KevinReid
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
Try the Six Million Dollar Man... Classic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man
02-09-2009 02:40 PM
Joe Ross
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by OScubed
Ours will probably be more robust than the real ones. The real ones use a cheap plastic connector that is easily broken. These are pop-riveted together for each strip. Not to say they won't break - just that they're pretty tough. We're actually concerned that these will be more robust than the real balls which is why we're not replacing the few real ones we got so that we can use those for our official "testing".
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02-09-2009 02:45 PM
David Brinza
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by Joe Ross
After making our balls, we wanted to do some testing with broken bands. It took many throws as hard as people could into a concrete floor to get both pop rivets to come out. The Lexan never broke. The same type of throwing quickly broke a real ball. In retrospect, it would have been easier to drill out the rivets, but throwing them was more fun.
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We also used hot glue to join the fabric ends. It's faster and easier than sewing and also is quite robust (no separated seams after an impromptu soccer game).
02-10-2009 04:18 PM
Robert103
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
We found that balls pop riveted/glued together acted differently than the store bought balls, do the balls you made still flex like they do?
02-10-2009 05:18 PM
Josh Goodman
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by Robert103
We found that balls pop riveted/glued together acted differently than the store bought balls, do the balls you made still flex like they do?
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03-13-2009 07:44 PM
Lara Surmak
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
What did you make the balls out of?
We tried using lexan that was the same thickness as the plastic that the original moon rock was made from, but the ball that was made is unsquishable, and therefore useless to our team.
03-13-2009 08:01 PM
Coffeeism
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by Lara Surmak
What did you make the balls out of?
We tried using lexan that was the same thickness as the plastic that the original moon rock was made from, but the ball that was made is unsquishable, and therefore useless to our team. |
03-14-2009 01:59 PM
Cynette
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
Our balls were substantially stiffer than the factory manufactured ones, but were still usable by most teams for testing and practice. One suggestion to make them more flexible is to use tape to connect the ends rather than the rivets.
03-14-2009 04:22 PM
artdutra04
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by Cynette
Our balls were substantially stiffer than the factory manufactured ones, but were still usable by most teams for testing and practice. One suggestion to make them more flexible is to use tape to connect the ends rather than the rivets.
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03-14-2009 06:33 PM
Cynette
Re: pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
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Originally Posted by artdutra04
I wish I had known about this back when we wrote the white paper, but the material inside a real Orbit Ball is polypropylene. McMaster sells 4'x8' sheets of 1/16" thick polypropylene for $29.16 and 3/32" thick sheets for $41.20.
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But we love our slightly stiffer and WAY more durable balls! And so did the teams that came to our rally because there were lots and lots of them.
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