Andy Mark Toughbox - Warping Plexiglass
 

Just a bit of advice to any and all teams using this year's Toughbox from the kit.

Make extra sure you don't over-tighten the four bolts that bind the box together. It's really easy to bend the plexiglass plate. A couple younger members already permanently warped ours. Although, I'm kinda glad they did, because if they warp that easily, I'd rather not have them on the robot.

We're going to have some identical plates made out of aluminum. I'm sure many teams have already realized this, but I figured I'd bring it up anyway.

Re: Andy Mark Toughbox - Warping Plexiglass
 

Our plastic plate actually seems to have developed some hairline cracks surrounding the CIM mounting screw holes, so that's something to watch out for too. Another reason that an aluminum replacement might be good.

Re: Andy Mark Toughbox - Warping Plexiglass
 

You might consider using the 2" aluminum spacers made for the supershifter from AM in place of the plastic ... and save weight too... win-win

http://store.andymark.biz/am-0127.html

Re: Andy Mark Toughbox - Warping Plexiglass
 

Remember, DO NOT use regular Loctite on anything that may come in contact with Lexan (polycarbonate).

Loctite causes a reaction/dissolves the polycarbonate, which makes it brittle and very prone to cracking and shattering.


The entire polycarbonate plate is needed, because it holds the bearings and supports the shafts. However, you can use the aluminum spacers in the link you provided in place of the extruded aluminum box around the transmission.

Re: Andy Mark Toughbox - Warping Plexiglass
 

On a similar note, can anyone do me a big favor by e-mailing me the Autodesk schematic drawing of that plate, so we can send that to the shop guy? We've yet to set up Autodesk on any of our machines and we can't get ahold of the one who owns the FIRSTBase manager account, so we can't get it ourselves right now.

If you can send it to jakenveina@yahoo.com

Re: Andy Mark Toughbox - Warping Plexiglass
 

You can download an *.stp of the gearbox from AndyMark. You could also just make a new model of it from the drawings at AndyMark; it isn't a very complicated part.

Re: Andy Mark Toughbox - Warping Plexiglass
 

I know I can download it from the website. We don't have the Autodesk software setup and it's going to be a while before we can. If I could do it myself, I would.

Re: Andy Mark Toughbox - Warping Plexiglass
 

An AutoCAD 2000 drawing of the polycarbonate plate is in the attached ZIP archive.