Re: Bridge material question
 

I would also try screen-door and awning installers to find polycarb sheets. they use them instead of glass for their doors.

Re: Bridge material question
 

thank you

Re: Bridge material question
 

hey so i pretty much finished making the bridge and have some concerns.

1. is it alright to NOT include a pinch guard? whats the worst thatll happen?

2. the real field will be made out of a kind of plastic which has a different friction than plywood. is the frictional difference that great that lets say if the bot goes fine on the plywood bridge. that it wont go as smoothly on the real field or vice versa?

Re: Bridge material question
 

The competition field does not include the pinch guard, but it is good to have it on your practice bridge to keep people from getting their hands under the bridge. The worse that an happen might include having a finger cut off or some hand bones broken. This won't happen on the field since there won't be people getting their hands under the bridge. The most dangerous place is in the hinge assembly. A second danger point is right at the end of the bridge where the bridge meets the floor. If you don't want to build the entire guard, consider putting a guard over both sides of the hinge.

There is a significant difference between the slickness of a plywood bridge and one with polycarbonate on it. If you can't afford polycarbonate, consider something e styrene or acrylic which might bee a little less expensive but would be durable enough for practice.

Dr. Bob

Chairman's Award is not about building the robot. Every team builds a robot.

Re: Bridge material question
 

thank you very much retired starman just one question concerning the bridge. i already finished the plywood version of the bridge and the most i can do is to use a coating to try to mimic the slickness of the actual competition bridge what do u recommend i should get to coat the plywood to accomplish a like slickness to that of the polycarb?

Re: Bridge material question
 

There's no substitute for the real thing. There aren't any practical coatings that will simulate polycarbonate at reasonable cost. Get as thin a sheet of polycarbonate as you can find, and attach it to the surface.

Re: Bridge material question
 

so now that the bridge is completely done i realized some weird things, like that when its perfectly level the weight force it takes to push one side down is waaaay less then the other side so i just screwed some blocks of wood to the harder to push down side bottom to balance out the weight and it worked to fix that problem but its now completely not level when there's nothing on it so im scared that it wont be accurate when it comes to testing did anyone have a similar problem? or know if it will effect the testing?

Re: Bridge material question
 

That's a combination of 1) plans modified on the fly and 2) the construction material used. I know that 148 reported a balancing bias when they constructed their bridge, about a couple lbf's worth. We haven't checked ours for such, but I wouldn't be surprised. Anyone who used the team drawings to construct their bridge will also have a bridge that's easier to tip than the one at competition (about 56 lbft of torque is necessary for the real bridge, as opposed to 30 lbft for the wooden one) because of the differencee in moment of inertia. Most teams have rectified this by adding steel plates or some other heavy, dense material to the underside of their bridges.