pic: my version of a wooden chassis

[MrForbes]

There is no need at all for the steel corner brackets if you use the triangle gusset plates on the top. All they do is add weight.

The 2x6 sides are way overkill, if you think you need some more strength at the axle attachment points, you could double the plywood at that area, but it really isn't needed. The cantilevered axles are short, and if they are made of 1/2" bolts then they are very strong, and the nuts and washers used to attach them spread the load out over a large area of wood. Also birch plywood is harder and stronger (because it's laminated from plies that go different directions) than a fir 2x6.

There is a lot of engineering thought behind the design we came up with....

[gorrilla]

Originally Posted by squirrel

There is no need at all for the steel corner brackets if you use the triangle gusset plates on the top. All they do is add weight.

The 2x6 sides are way overkill, if you think you need some more strength at the axle attachment points, you could double the plywood at that area, but it really isn't needed. The cantilevered axles are short, and if they are made of 1/2" bolts then they are very strong, and the nuts and washers used to attach them spread the load out over a large area of wood. Also birch plywood is harder and stronger (because it's laminated from plies that go different directions) than a fir 2x6.

There is a lot of engineering thought behind the design we came up with....

the L-brackets are small, only two inches long and 1/2inch wide......

If we were gonig to use it for competition I would use your design but intstead of dead axles, i would use directly driven wheels so there ould be as little pressure on the shaft as possible,

i also think that its way overkill for just a demo-bot, but if we had to use wood next year, i know that it would be a very long decision on which way to do it,(probobly would end up a mixture of both)

could you list what you think are the pros and cons of both?

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by gorrilla

If we were gonig to use it for competition I would use your design but intstead of dead axles, i would use directly driven wheels so there ould be as little pressure on the shaft as possible,

There is no need to have as little pressure on the shaft as possible, if you make the axle shaft strong and well supported. If the shaft is short and large diameter and well supported, it can take a lot of load!

could you list what you think are the pros and cons of both?

The neat thing about the wood chassis concept, is that you can build a couple of them, using different designs, for not much money. Then you can see how they work.

[gorrilla]

Originally Posted by squirrel

There is no need to have as little pressure on the shaft as possible, if you make the axle shaft strong and well supported. If the shaft is short and large diameter and well supported, it can take a lot of load!

The neat thing about the wood chassis concept, is that you can build a couple of them, using different designs, for not much money. Then you can see how they work.

but wouldent having the wheels directly driven do both jobs at the same time and be stronger and lighter?


ill see if i can get back to home depot and get some more wood,

ill try building your design and see what happens

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by gorrilla

but wouldent having the wheels directly driven do both jobs at the same time and be stronger and lighter?

Yes, it could be stronger and lighter...but you might not be able to make it have all 3 wheels on each side driven by two motors, which is something we think is kind of important.

We used a cantilevered dead axle design last year, and it was very strong and light. It's hard to compare two designs without having some drawings or pictures of them, though.

[gorrilla]

Originally Posted by squirrel

Yes, it could be stronger and lighter...but you might not be able to make it have all 3 wheels on each side driven by two motors, which is something we think is kind of important.

We used a cantilevered dead axle design last year, and it was very strong and light. It's hard to compare two designs without having some drawings or pictures of them, though.

ill see what happens in the next week or two I have off


ill put some dead axles on my current frame to see how they would work out