pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

Those look good, who is making them?

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

Is it an illusion, or are they smaller than last year?

If so, is that another move to save weight?

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

Here's a question- on the interior portion of the wheel, the tread holding portion- if you're just going to cut the back of the plate off, why do you pocket the entire interior, instead of just contouring the inside of the wheel? It would definitely save a lot of time but I can imagine that chunk of aluminum bashing up your wheel when you turned the block off it.

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

I don't know why. The machinist did the same thing when they made our wheels though, so there must be some reason for it.

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

My guess is that if you do a contour, you have to make a breakthorough cut and go through a piece of wood or something that the aluminum is mounted to. Mounting the aluminum requires so much effort, especially for all those wheels, when you can just do what's done in the picture and then flip the pieces upside down and face it all off.

I'm no expert machinist; I started learning how to use CNC a week ago. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

I didn't really mean to cut all the way through the piece- just contour the inside edge, then do whatever machining operations later to free the wheel from the blank. I would imagine that for these wheels, a contour to the same depth would take far less time than the full pocket they're taking out of the wheels. And save some more of that precious 7075!

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

Its not an illusion. The wheels this year are 4" diameter.

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

It looks like the wheels are wider too... Are they 4" x 2" wheels?

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

Interesting.. did you design to be able to climb ramps, or is that not a part of the strategy this year?

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

The wheels have ~.85" tread width. Wider than last year by a small amount.

And yes, the robot will have the ability to drive up ramps.

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

Is it worth making it out of plate instead of roundstock? It seems like the smarter way to go in terms of machine time and I am thinking of altering our machine process for our wheels next year based on these. I am curious as to how long these wheels take a piece and if it is worth the extra wasted material.
-Guy

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

It's approximately 30 min runtime for each piece. Using plate instead of roundstock saves a lot of time. It can all be done on the mill, instead of needing to either saw/part pieces off of roundstock, then face them, then turn them to the correct OD, before even being able to start the contouring.

Re: pic: table shot of the wheels... 254/968
 

It is also more difficult to get ahold of 7075 round stock in the diameters required.