Carbide / Hardening / Casting

[Adam Y.]

I know it’s a little far fetched, but imagine it. You melt together sand and carbon, making liquid carbide. Pour it into castings, making bars. Use those bars to make your robot frame. Also, if you could harden your transmission gears and parts, like shifting dogs, your gearboxes would live longer. Just some wild ideas…

http://www.mini-lathe.com/Anodizing/...g_aluminum.htm

[jrgrim12]

Hardening Steel:
How you harden steel depends on what kind of steel you have. If you want to harden the steel yourself then you would probably want to use o-1. O-1 is an oil hardening steel. Don't use any oil use something like this (http://library.cbest.chevron.com/lub...5?OpenDocument)
Some oils have low flash points and can bust into flames, or explode. But if you have the right oil then you heat the steel up with a torch until it starts to turn red. The brighter the red/orange the harder the steel will become. Once you have it heated then you quickly dunk it into the oil and quench it. It's a cheap and dirty way to do it. Remember usually the harder you make the steel the more brittle it will become.

I would suggest picking up a Machinery's handbook. It has a lot of useful information in it.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I doubt that Carbide would fit into the allowed matierials list. Although it was one of the hardest matierials it is also very brittle and ungiving. It is not the choice for a robot frame that is going to get beat about and it is extremely hard to machine. Hardened matierials are not needed under normal robot building, although they are useful in bearing surfaces and guides.