Making a cheap launcher

[Garrett.d.w]

Originally Posted by thinker&planner

There is no reason that a mini CIM won'r work for a launcher: we have a GIGANTIC wheel that weighs about 1.5 lbs (bad guess) and it spins up fully in about 6 seconds. I completely understand the tight budget part; we have a bit of an issue there too. In relation to this, we like to give an award to the team who we think that the students actually helped design and build the robot instead of having their parent NASA engineers build it for them.
Good Luck!

[rant]
To truly achieve excellence, compete by bringing yourself up and surpass the competition instead of dragging your competition down (From Karthik's TED talk).

Take this into consideration when you speak. On CD you are not hiding behind a wall of anonymity. We may not know you personally, but your profile tells us what team you are on. When you drag somebody down, you drag your team down. Keep stuff GP because everything, good and bad, reflects on your team.

[/rant]

Back to OP:
Sorry to hijack your thread. I echo the direct drive CIM. We have not spent much manpower on our shooter (we are 30 point hanging) but an average skilled member of ours was able to get something going in about an hour using minimal tools and material. We spent $25 dollars on the hub and used plywood and a wheel that we had laying around.

If you are especially frugal, you could probably spend about 30-50 dollars getting it to work using the items and spitballed prices.
CIM (KOP)
Small Piston (Bimba Voucher)
Pneumatics (KOP)
Hub (25 on AM)
Plywood (depends, probably 5-10 dollars depending on what you get)
Spraypaint, team color (sexy, but not necessary at 8 bucks a can)
Wheel (KOP)

I'm not posting any pics on this first post on purpose because I don't want to ruin the fun in the chase. However, I am willing to email you a full CAD of our current prototype if you want me to. Just send me a PM and let me know.

Good luck

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Garrett.d.w

Spraypaint, team color (sexy, but not necessary at 8 bucks a can)

Eight bucks?! The good stuff at Lowe's is five; the cheap cans (black/white/gray and good enough to mount to wood) is 99 cents!

That quibble aside, I think Garrett is on point here. I think attempting a $0 solution will cause you to spend $20-30 on heartburn and blood pressure meds, so spend that on a couple of AndyMark parts and get rolling.