Who is drilling holes this year ??

[shyra1353]

so now that the season ends in a week today most teams are done or almost done with their robots. i am wondering who is going to be drilling holes ... aka swiss cheesing .. their robots this year.

i know we will be for sure!!

--
ps - i did do a search on this so if there is already a thread on this im sorry .. i must have missed it

[ReggieB]

We find that using a drill to cut weight is not easy--it takes houndreds of holes in sheet to make a difference-unless it's small to begin with, you use a holesaw, or it's thick stuff (but then the whole thing is too heavy anyway). We used a saber saw to cut large triangles out of the drive plates- saving about a pound per plate. Our wings are similarly cut. We are now in the 120-125 range, so we are glad we did.

Many of you may have seen "wrench man", 449's logo. We have "person" made out of ~1" head wrenches, that weighs about 5 lbs. We hope to be able to add him to our robot (but only if we dont add any other weight for systems).
We did this last year, when a problem led to us re-designing the frame at houston. We weighed in
at:

http://www.manisbutareed.org/USFIRST2003/Houston/p4110029r.html

untill we had more time to add systems back.
Here is a team member w/buttons that have wrench man on them, arranged in the wrenchman shape:


http://www.manisbutareed.org/USFIRST2003/Houston/p4110005r.html

[aaronbr28040]

We are still under the weight limit currently but we are resorting to "speed holing" our robot rather than swiss cheesing it in order to add another mechanism. No important structural components will be drilled only pieces that are easily replaceable and do not harm the structural integrity of the robot or the drive train. I like speed holes........doesnt slow the robot down so much..lol

Amusing calculation from last year:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...94&postcount=2

Originally Posted by FotoPlasma

(1/4in)/2 = 1/8in
pi(1/8in)^2 = 0.049087385212341in^2
0.049087385212341in^2 * .125in = 0.0061359231515426in^3
1/0.0061359231515426in^3 = 162.9746617261 quarter inch holes per in^3
(I love my TI-89)
solve(((162.9746617261holes)/(0.098lb/in^3))=((x)/(1)),x)
According to my calculations, 1663.0067523071 holes per lb of aluminum...

If any of that looks wrong, please alert me to it immediately...

I hope that's right... it's kinda late...

[Greg Needel]

unfortunatly.....yes we are




edited to say: btw we are going to have a guess the number of holes contest at the cleveland regional. so you can get a head start i guess......

[Aignam]

Why is it unfortunate to drill holes to cut weight? We plan for lightening holes. There's no shame in it. The weight drop is significant, when you are toying with 130 lbs.

[MisterX]

Originally Posted by D.J. Fluck

Amusing calculation from last year:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...94&postcount=2

Is that for 1/4in whole in 1/8 Al plate or what? But that is funny

RIght now with the current setup our robot will be holier than the Vatican City full to the brim with Popes. But if we gop with the elementry version we should be fine

[Rich Wong]

Originally Posted by MisterX

Is that for 1/4in whole in 1/8 Al plate or what? But that is funny

RIght now with the current setup our robot will be holier than the Vatican City full to the brim with Popes. But if we gop with the elementry version we should be fine

The "3/4" DRILL Diet" usually will shave 5 to 8 lbs off our bots.

Just enough to make the "weight in" or components must be removed.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Yes, but only where no one could see them. like in the sprockets. only because our robot is going to be the best looking robot in the competition this year.
on a more personal note, i like to see holes in robots because they make them look more of an "unprofessionally" designed robot and you know that they did experience the weight issue that most every team deals with.

[Aignam]

I think most teams with engineer-support drill speed holes, too.

[shyra1353]

we ended up not drilling individual holes, but more taking out big ovals and lost 10 pounds !!!

[NoRemorse]

we lost 4 wheel drive (went to 2) and drilled like crazy

lost over 30 pounds

[Crop-Circles]

Our team never seems to really be sure until the day before. It's so much more exiting anyway...

[Team1425]

Our team found a new way of taking weight off ....

Drilling holes in the battery could make the weight difference

One of our team members accidentally drilled up into the bottom of a battery when he was mounting line following sensors on the bottom, luckily it didnt penetrate the battery all the way, so it was a simple silicone fix.

[pras870]

Well, I would recommend getting a replacement battery if you're using silicone to keep it form leaking, that's just not safe.

Anyway, my team decided to do swiss cheese form the beginning. We don't have a lot of weight issues this year, since we went with aluminum plates instead of extrusion this year (big difference in accessability and weight). Besides that, the only thing we cut down on weight is our towers for the elevators. As soon as we got those, we slapped them on the mill and designed out weight reduction (patterns, and our team number and school name). All in all, it was more succesful this year then previous ones when it comes to weight.