View Full Version : pic: Yeah!! We finally finished making Orbit Balls!!
Kims Robot
07-02-2009, 23:20
[cdm-description=photo]32667[/cdm-description]
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! :D
Color key:
Black are empty cells
Camo are super cells
Black/Red/White are moon rocks (as are all the store bought ones)
Greta job and that probably took a long time. I love the colors, they are sick
If they're anything like the real thing, a lot of them will be broken soon. You might want to make some more. :rolleyes:
skimoose
08-02-2009, 09:01
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! :cool:
If they're anything like the real thing, a lot of them will be broken soon. You might want to make some more. :rolleyes:
Way to kill the vibe, John.:rolleyes:
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,
Way to kill the vibe, John.:rolleyes:
Sorry, it is unfair of me to vent my Orbit Ball related frustrations here.
JV
Sorry, it is unfair of me to vent my Orbit Ball related frustrations here.
JV
Don't sweat it, John.
Our robot just turned some of our orbit balls to masses of broken plastic and fabric.
If they're anything like the real thing, a lot of them will be broken soon. You might want to make some more. :rolleyes:
Our robot just turned some of our orbit balls to masses of broken plastic and fabric.
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. ;)
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. ;)
You must make a video of your build process using this song. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgBgnoEY4iM)
GaryVoshol
08-02-2009, 19:11
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. ;)
You must make a video of your build process using this song. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgBgnoEY4iM)
Geeze, ain't nobody that appreciates good allusion anymore.
OK boys and girls under the age of 25, what's Cynette's quote from?
meastman
08-02-2009, 20:35
Now time to start building the robot :P
Now time to start building the robot :PA what? :confused:
Oh my, I knew we were forgetting something! :cool:
KidneyMerchant
08-02-2009, 20:52
Geeze, ain't nobody that appreciates good allusion anymore.
OK boys and girls under the age of 25, what's Cynette's quote from?
Bionic Man.
Do I win?
KevinReid
08-02-2009, 22:10
Try the Six Million Dollar Man... Classic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man
Joe Ross
09-02-2009, 14:40
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".
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.
David Brinza
09-02-2009, 14:45
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.
We did similar testing of our adhesive-bonded practice balls - no failures at all.
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).
Robert103
10-02-2009, 16:18
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?
Josh Goodman
10-02-2009, 17:18
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?
Slightly different. Yes, we thought of this too. They are a little stiffer than the store-bought kind but they flex enough so that there won't be any problems.
Lara Surmak
13-03-2009, 19:44
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.
kevin.li.rit
13-03-2009, 20:01
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.
They used polycarbonate(lexan). I'm not sure of the thickness.
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.
artdutra04
14-03-2009, 16:22
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.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 (http://www.mcmaster.com/#8742k931/=103b2b) for $29.16 and 3/32" thick sheets (http://www.mcmaster.com/#8742k932/=103b9m) for $41.20.
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 (http://www.mcmaster.com/#8742k931/=103b2b) for $29.16 and 3/32" thick sheets (http://www.mcmaster.com/#8742k932/=103b9m) for $41.20.And that is cheaper than Lexan, for sure! But same thing for us, by the time we knew what the material was, we had already purchased and cut the lexan.
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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