Are You EPICALLY overweight?

[Gary Dillard]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I'm epically overweight but it's so far so good on the robot.
More will be revealed on Monday, I suppose.

I'm not epically overweight but I could always stand to lose a few.

We rolled up a slightly conservative weight budget on day 2 and added up to about 118, so I figured we were OK. We weighed yesterday fully loaded at 107.3 so we've got some margin to beef up a couple of gearbox and sprocket components, as well as shift CG a little.

<edit> Oh wait, that included the trailer hitch, which is excluded from the 120# limit. I guess we have a little more margin.

I've always wanted, if I had an underweight robot (this is only the second time in 12 years I've been there), to mount a toolkit somewhere on the robot with allen wrenches, combination wrenches, needle nose pliers, diagonal cutters, etc. so I don't have to hunt for them. Maybe we'll go there.

[gorrilla]

as of last week when we weighed it, this is the first year we have ever been underweight without have to make things "dissapear"

[AlexD744]

These posts about underweight must be making the guy who started this thread sick. We came in with our final robot at about 1/4 pound under. We new since we had our design about where we would be. A good thing to do is to cut off brackets that stick out into no where.

[dlavery]

We have seen both ends of the spectrum over the years. For several years running, we were consistently underweight. We even went so far as to purchase a 27-pound block of lead from Small Parts (back when they were one of the only legal parts resources) that we used as ballast for the robot (suitably coated and protected, of course). Then there was our experience three years ago. Despite several warnings from the integration team, the individual subteams refused to stick to their weight budgets when building their sections of the robot. As things came together, the total weight became a bleaker and bleaker picture. Finally, two days before the shipping deadline, we weighed in at a massive 42 pounds overweight. Everyone finally got the message - time for a diet! At times like that, the only viable solutions tend to be rather drastic ones. So we took a quick run to Home Depot and picked up one of these:

It is amazing how much weight you can remove when you are really motivated (and it is interesting to have the entire team go through the "features that are 'highly desireable' vs those that are 'absolutely needed' exercize).

-dave





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[Dick Linn]

Dave,

I have a "jigsaw" blade that is about the size of that entire sawzall. 1/2" thick, one tooth per inch. I found it on a railroad siding, so it must be used on some machine to cut old ties. I used to use that as a reminder about being overweight.

[Gary Dillard]

Originally Posted by ZakuAce

We're 30 pounds over LOL.

You know Garrett, 30 pounds is only 5 pounds on the moon. Doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by dlavery

..we weighed in at a massive 42 pounds overweight

42 pounds is the most I've heard of. That's impressive.

[dani190]

Originally Posted by ZakuAce

I'm curious how many other teams are epically overweight. We're 30 pounds over LOL. I probably shouldn't be lol'ing, but it is 11:52PM, I just got home from a 15 hour build session, and I find the word 'potato' funny.

i think we are like 2 pounds under when we wieght today..

still not done, but our school is just so dumb, they invest money in this program and basically give up at the end..

Just great...

[,4lex S.]

We weighed in with 16 pounds left, not including control or decorations... So I don't really know where we are now... either way, thats why we rivetted random pieces of aluminium angle on the robot, makes lightening easier. We are making sure to pack the good old hole saw though.

[Chipawa]

We've had mixed experiences over the years.

2003, our first year, we added a boat anchor chain for ballast.

2005, we removed a stage to our multi-stage lift to make weight.

This year we were about 20 lbs overwight. Every time we thought we took 10 lbs off, we ended up 5 lbs lighter! Right now we're hovering around 120. That camera isn't looking so important any more!

Anyone notice that their robot gains weight from the time it ships 'til weigh-in at the Regional? Just part of the magic of FIRST I guess.

-Chip

[billbo911]

With battery and bumpers, we weighed in at 105 Lbs. yesterday.

If someone is +20 Lbs. over, can you send us your extra weight??

Seriously, we are adding at leat 12 Lbs of 1X2 in. aluminum bars just to get our weight up a little.

[waialua359]

How the heck can a team be that Underweight?
Show us some pics.

This thread can easily be applied to both robot and/or mentor.
Hard to stay underweight.

[BrendanB]

Or drive base with our harvester weighs about 70-80 pounds and all we have to add is a shooter, which shouldn't weigh too much.

Last year we got tipped twice at GSR and on Saturday we added around 20 pounds of weight to make us heavier.

[fordchrist675]

Originally Posted by smurfgirl

Everyone's been there. In 2006, on the Saturday before ship we weighed in at around 140, were about 5'4" in height, and had a cg so high it was pretty much instant flippage. Basically we had three days for a total redesign. Since then we've learned to budget weight starting from day 1, and have payed careful attention to how designs to develop. Call your situation a learning experience as well.

Same for us in 06 shipped 20 lbs over the SVR machine shop was the main reason we were able to compete lol we are under by about 10

[nahstobor]

For once 612 isn't over weight. Last year we were a good 8lbs over when we showed up to our first regional.

But this year sorry, we are 20lbs under . Switch to aluminum bolts, they save weight!