How are bellypans made?

[Conor Ryan]

I don't like to use bellypans, there are much more efficient places to place all of your electronics.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by squirrel

If you can score and snap it, it's not polycarbonate! It's most likely acrylic (Plexiglass).

You can score and snap polycarbonate. We do it all the time for making hoppers/boxes etc.



As for belly pan. We are using 1/8" 6061-T6 with a waterjet doing the cutting for us. We anodize the bellypan and it is then riveted to our frame. The electronics are held down using plastic screws tapped into the bellypan.

Also- if you do cross-hatching like 254 and ourselves do for lightening, the "vent" tool in SolidWorks is your best friend.

Photo:


-Brando

[roystur44]

Some of the design parameters for this years chassis was to be lightweight, easy to maintain, simple to make. We used a CNC punch press to punch out our drive base. The material is .090" 5052. Note the simple round holes in a stagger for lighting the material.

The Cad team came up with a innovative way to incorporate the belly pan into the front and back panels. The side rails slide into the belly pan and are riveted together. We call it the clam shell design.

We use .250 high pressed in standoffs, a plastic isolator and nylon screws to attach electronics.

This chassis weighs in under 12 lbs and is very rigid and strong.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1045493...89068712771618

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znSKHoLEN5U

[Undertones]

This year we used the most beast of beast baseplates... We have a 40lb 1/4 hardened steel baseplate. We could run over a landmine and likely not be too damaged (except from being thrown into the air).

As Hannibal said in the A-Team, "overkill is underrated".

[PAR_WIG1350]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

You can score and snap polycarbonate. We do it all the time for making hoppers/boxes etc.

Based on my experience, this is true, but it doesn't always snap where you score it . (I was lazy, it was 1/4 inch makrolon, I scored it with a dremmel.)
The groove wasn't of a consistent depth, this was made worse by the fact that melted debris had re-hardened to fill in other parts of the groove. After (ALMOST literally) jumping up and down on it for a while, it snapped along the grove for a couple of inches after which the break line made a slight turn splitting nearly parallel to the line for the rest of the split. It was ugly, but still close enough to the desired size to use (luckily it split in a way that I wound up with extra material instead of missing material.)

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

I don't like to use bellypans, there are much more efficient places to place all of your electronics.

Seconded. A vertical board is much more space efficient.

[R1ffSurf3r]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

Seconded. A vertical board is much more space efficient.

we have both

[MrForbes]

We went with a 45 degree angle on our electronics board this year...best of both worlds.

[pmangels17]

We use two pieces of corrugated polycaronate (http://www.mcmaster.com/#corrugated-...sheets/=gnf1k0) refer to the image labeled non-corrugated. it is also called corriboard or corrugated plastic. We use two 1/8" thick pieces with the channels running in opposite directions. use srews or bolts to attach. We use an ice pick or pin to poke a hole where we want the screw to go, and then use 10-24 bolts, not screw, to attach. They tap themselves into the plastic, and the connection is sturdy without a nut as long as you dont detach and reuse the hole many time. Good Luck! Hope to see it in action next year!