Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

well team 1745 weighs in at 73 lbs now . . . I have no idea if this is bad or good.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

Depends on how much of a robot you got. If you just have a chassis that can move around, then that seems pretty good. If that is your near finished robot's weight, then I am amazed... and its time to add a few pounds so it doesn't get pushed all over the place by other robots.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

thats the near finnish weight . . with a shooter, a basket that can hold 20+ balls, and a 320 degree rotating turret(auto tracking of course).

so how much does lead cost?

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

Well. we haven't been that concerned woth weight, but we are usung our Bridgeport and CNC to drill/ mill lightening patterns in our parts. We will probably add weight later.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

we use good ol' unibits as seen here. it does the job.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

2" Lincoln Bit and a revamped pneumatic air tool.

Whine and Cheese party. After the whine of the drill, everything looks a HOLE lot like Swiss Chees.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

The only tool we use is good design practice and a really annoying person who's job is to ask constantly "How much does that weigh???" It looks like we will be 10-20 lbs under when we get done, so we've quit worrying about what things weigh. My biggest concern right now is that there is no good place to put the lead...

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

So far, 57 pounds. We just need to get everything onto the drivebase that we weighed and we'll be over. I'm hesitant to guess by how much.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

Used brass where we are is $1.50 lb it cuts easy and has far less safety issues than lead. BTW it is more dense than the cast (iron) weights on the back of our studio cameras a 16 lb chunk is about 1 x 4 x 6 unless my memory has lost it again.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

Wow, our team is over the weight limit year after year. We have to drill holes in the sheet metal to lose weight, and you guys are adding weight? I never knew other teams had it like this.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

One letter: H. We plan to use lots and lots of H. Seriously, my team... okay, I've pretty much ignored the wieght limit (can't speak for the launcher team) since we're going to be pretty small this year (under 3 feet most likely yay!) and the bigger parts are aluminum. But, if worse comes to worse, I'll leave it up to the launcher people. I'm going to wire the robot for neatness and order (I hope) while maintaning shorter runs. It is the lovely convergence of things needed: order, lower resistance, and weight. Nice organized, short runs helps them all... and gives me another thing to do. (I don't have much to do right now since the drivetrain's done and it was my sole responsibility)

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

Team 222 has drilled 352 holes tonight alone. All holes were at least 9/16" of an inch in diameter ranging up to 2.5."
That does not count any of hundreds of previously drilled holes.
We have hack-sawed a decent amount too.

This is going be fun getting under weight :)

EDIT:
Add 27 to that number (the night goes on.) 377 total holes. 1 night.

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

I don't have any words to explain what i feel after reading all these posts. Luckily our team seems to build the heaviest robot in the world, and than throw away 4 robots worth of parts to finally get the weight reduction we need. Our ball holder weighs 1/8 what it weighed earlier! Now it weighs something rediculously low. Our ball launcher was like 50 lbs, I was cleaning up the new launcher and I can guarantee it only wieghs about 5-10 pounds now! As far as I know, our team never needs more weight, we need less weight and more time!

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

Team 11 seems to have always had problems with being over weight from what i've heard. being my second year, i can't list all the examples of over weight robots in the past 10 years of the team. but i can say that last year, our telescoping/articulating arm made completely out of cnc'd lexan side panels and foam filled lexan tubing came in at 16.6 pounds to heavy, and since it was already completely milled out for maximum weight savings, there was no change of using it. luckily, we had a back up arm made of aluminum, with no articulation, that still had to be drilled out to save weight. learning from last years mishap of people drilling off centered holes and sacrificing structural integrity, when we came in at 116 without electronics, we hole sawed our gator board (top secret sign making material that has been implimented into a robot), and i was put in charge of drilling approximately 300 half inch holes in our aluminum frame, 1 inch apart, dead center for maximum strength. we've come in around 110 after switching from pvc rollers to foam filled lexan rollers, and after sawing away any excess aluminum on our frame. now its time for electronics....... hopefully we won't need to drill anymore..... my wrist is still sore from all the drilling and center punching.....

Re: What tool are you using to make weight?
 

The lead comment was a humorous reference to the poll option for being over 10 pounds under. For safety reasons I would never recommend lead, as it now seems to be considered a hazardous material in almost any condition. In the past we have used barbell plates, and that is probably what we'll end up using again. The trick with this year's design will be finding a good place for them that doesn't get the CG up too high. Maybe I can convince the students they need to add the air compressor :)