Team 321 Update - Chassis Pic

[Justin M.]

It made a hard work week (cutting out the squares in the chassis), and a VERY hard weekend to get this done. I was in my garage all weekend drilling and tapping about 50 holes, then getting them to line up properly...lets just say it took all of Saturday to drill the holes, then all of Sunday to get them to line up with some improvisations and custom engineering with a hammer, c-clamps, various files and a dremel.

Anyway here is our naked chassis, as of tonight:







Tomorrow when she's back in school, we're going to fix any addtional bolt issues, bolt on the baseplate and motors, space the wheels, put on the chain, and get her moving by tuesday. More pics to follow.

[Arefin Bari]

Is that 1/2" aluminum? How much does that weigh as it is in the picture?

[Jetgrindradio00]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

Is that 1/2" aluminum? How much does that weigh as it is in the picture?

I agree, that looks extremely heavy

[AdamHeard]

If it is 6061 it is .098 lbs/in^3.

That means that each square inch of that is .049 lbs/in^3.

Based on some quick estimation that is really freaking heavy...

[Justin M.]

It's actually quite light. Some of the pieces are REALLY light (aka feel like nothing), but the inner plates with the motor mounts weigh it down. I haven't weighed it yet, but my guess it is about 15lbs. in the picture....with everything else my guess will be that the chassis will be about 50lbs max.

Seriously, it weighs a LOT less than it appears in the picture, and yes, that is 1/2" 6061. It's name is probably going to be "Frank the Tank", basically because this chassis is built like a tank. With bumpers, it'll be unstopable.

The dimensions are 27"Wx33.375"L. With the bolt heads we will be pushing ~27.5"W, just making it in the 28"x38" box. Hopefully the axle bolt heads aren't too thick, otherwise I'll be grinding them down tomorrow to make them shorter. We will be entering in the 5'/110lb. class.

[Cody Carey]

I quickly estimated these, but here:

Front and back plates are 4x27

Side plates are 4x34

Middle plate is 4x19

Each long hole is 3x8

Each short hole is 3x4


If that is right, then there are 372 in^2 of 1/2 inch 6061 aluminum on that frame... That means that the frame alone should weigh 18.9 lbs, minus wheels and bolts. Since the AndyMark wheels weigh .8 a piece, they account for 3.2 lbs, and I'll throw a pound in there for bolts.



The whole frame should weigh about 23.1 lbs.




...

[overlord]

How long did it take you to cut out all those holes in the aluminum?

[Dylan Gramlich]

i can guess that you will not be climbing any ramps based on how low that frame is to the ground. so will you be doing the lifting?

[Justin M.]

The squares took about 3 normal work days to cut out, with three people cutting them.

We will be doing some more testing of our design this week (aka trying to lift dead bots) - our chassis and manipulators will be very solid, so yes, we will be doing the lifting.

Right now I am very happy with this chassis. Everything is going togteher nicely, and the design is solid. I'm even happy with the weight. Hopefully this thing will be "moving" by tonight...I'll post some more pics later.