Quote:
Originally Posted by ewankoff
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So, just for fun I built one, using 3" schedule 40 PVC (non-pressure rated) and standard caps. Overall assembled length is 10" and it weighs ~1.5 lb. Inside I placed a 2.188" diameter steel ball, taken from one of the largest ball bearings that Emerson uses. The ball also weighs ~1.5 lb.
(Don't expect to get them cheap -- motors that use that size ball are rated for 4000 horsepower and stand about fifteen feet tall. Production quantities are small relative to most FRC components.) So the total weight is about 3 lb. and the center of gravity shifts about six inches when the ball rolls from one end to the other.
As you can easily imagine, the weighted capsule is unwieldy! Grab it in the middle, tilt it slightly, and it will torque your wrist. Holding it level is a challenge.
A diabolical gamepiece if ever there was one.
__________________
Richard Wallace
Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
since 2003
I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)
Just like a mentor used to call a deburring tool, the whirlygig....it just sticks. Also, whirlygig....what a sweet name for a tool. - Stephen Kowski [more] 
28-11-2007, 20:30
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