Attaching Things on WCD

[JorgeReyes]

I've been designing a drive train in Inventor and I am wondering how are you supposed to attaching anything on a WCD style chassis. I've been looking at several pictures and haven't managed to figure it out.

[asid61]

What do you mean by attaching anything?
Many drive I've seen use small 1/8" thick plates on the corners with screws or rivets to attach the 2x1 together.

[JorgeReyes]

Well what I mean is say I want to mount an arm or any other part onto the chassis. I just don't know where the mounting point would be at

[Thad House]

We usually weld some plates to the bottom of whatever our superstructure is, and then those plates can then bolt to the top of the siderails. This makes it really easy to remove the structure, and there are plenty of ways you can mount to still be really strong.

[AdamHeard]

Almost all of ours WCD robots have ended up with a crossmember that bolts to the top of the siderails. Check out our 2011 CAD for reference in my sig.

[JorgeReyes]

Originally Posted by Thad House

We usually weld some plates to the bottom of whatever our superstructure is, and then those plates can then bolt to the top of the siderails. This makes it really easy to remove the structure, and there are plenty of ways you can mount to still be really strong.

So its basically two vertical plates that are welded to the bottom of the chassis and also the side rails and I'm guessing it would be in the front or the back of the chassis.

[JorgeReyes]

I'll post a picture of what I have so far with the drivetrain I am designing.

[JorgeReyes]

[asid61]

Yeah, you use small plates with holes in them and rivet them to the parts they attach to. Rivets are really strong but can be drilled out easily if you use aluminum.

It appears as if you are using 3x1 tubing. Most teams use aluminum 2x1 in their drives since it's lighter and is still plenty strong to get the job done.

[Greg Woelki]

You can mount things just about anywhere. We made simple brackets to attach our superstructure this year:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4u...it?usp=sharing

EDIT:

It appears as if you are using 3x1 tubing. Most teams use aluminum 2x1 in their drives since it's lighter and is still plenty strong to get the job done.

Additionally you can use vex versablocks and cam tensioners with 2x1, which I would highly recommend.

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by Thad House

We usually weld some plates to the bottom of whatever our superstructure is, and then those plates can then bolt to the top of the siderails. This makes it really easy to remove the structure, and there are plenty of ways you can mount to still be really strong.

This is how we did it. Basically, you end up with a superstructure that can be completely removed from the frame of the robot without any drilling, etc. I've seen 254 completely remove their superstructure for upgrades thanks to this frame design.

Edit: Here's a view of one of our superstructure attachment points from our 2014 comp bot.

[Dunngeon]

Generally, the superstructure is what things get attached to, it can be pemanently attached via welding, temporarily attached through rivets (use steel), or Bolted on with nuts and bolts. As posted above, the superstructure can even be made removable for easy changes to the drive base.

One small suggestion, have you thought about 3Cim gearboxes? They are an easy way to increase the torque available on your robot and make it generally faster.

Awesome to see more Oregon Teams on CD, good luck!

[Brandon_L]

We just gusseted our upper structure stuff right to the side of the rails with rivets. The rivets had low enough heads so they wouldn't contact the wheels. The other set of gussets were in a funky shape to avoid the bumper support, but overall it worked very well.

[JorgeReyes]

Originally Posted by Dunngeon

Generally, the superstructure is what things get attached to, it can be pemanently attached via welding, temporarily attached through rivets (use steel), or Bolted on with nuts and bolts. As posted above, the superstructure can even be made removable for easy changes to the drive base.

One small suggestion, have you thought about 3Cim gearboxes? They are an easy way to increase the torque available on your robot and make it generally faster.

Awesome to see more Oregon Teams on CD, good luck!

I've been considering 3 cim gearboxes but I am worried about the cost of getting them. If we find a way to set aside a bigger budget for our drivetrain then we might switch to 6 cims