Bending the Bumpers

[BeyondRamo]

Currently our team has a circular robot. At this point we have two ideas of how to attach the bumpers: 1) simply bending the 3/4" plywood into circular arcs which we will fasten to the robot OR 2) taking circular arcs out of the plywood and then stacking them up to get to 5", although 3/4 does not not go evenly into 5, we are still wondering if they would let that little offset go or not. If anyone has any other suggestions of as to how we can even create circular bumpers please let us know.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by BeyondRamo

Currently our team has a circular robot. At this point we have two ideas of how to attach the bumpers: 1) simply bending the 3/4" plywood into circular arcs which we will fasten to the robot OR 2) taking circular arcs out of the plywood and then stacking them up to get to 5", although 3/4 does not not go evenly into 5, we are still wondering if they would let that little offset go or not. If anyone has any other suggestions of as to how we can even create circular bumpers please let us know.

some of the past robots that were circular (don't remember the specific #'s) just did about 8 or so pieces of bumpers. it looked cool and covered their circle robot. hope that helps.

[EricH]

Go with option #1. Here's why. Or you could segment the bumpers.

[vhcook]

Option 1 is definitely legal per the Q&A response EricH cited, and is what I would recommend.

I don't think option 2 would pass inspection, based on this answer to a similar question: http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=8316

[BeyondRamo]

Thanks for the feedback, looks like we are going to bend the wood segments and attach them each seperatly, thanks again for the help.

[DonRotolo]

I suspect you will be unsuccessful in bending 3/4" plywood. Even if you were able to steam it long enough to become flexible, it's not really able to be bent like that.

You can make 3/4" plywood out of several thicknesses of, say, 1/4" plywood (and glue) - which can be bent. Or better still, literally make your own plywood out of 1/8" thick slices of wood, called Veneer. That doesn't need much to bend.

Google wood bending for some ideas.

Don

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

You can make 3/4" plywood out of several thicknesses of, say, 1/4" plywood (and glue) - which can be bent. Or better still, literally make your own plywood out of 1/8" thick slices of wood, called Veneer. That doesn't need much to bend.

Umm... Don, I suggest checking Q&A on making your own plywood, particularly the post vhcook linked to.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

You can make 3/4" plywood out of several thicknesses of, say, 1/4" plywood (and glue) ...

But you can't use that homemade plywood on a FRC robot, as Eric references:

Originally Posted by EricH

Umm... Don, I suggest checking Q&A on making your own plywood, particularly the post vhcook linked to.

I didn't want to leave a dangling "look it up" here - not when a team is told something exactly opposite the rule.