Off Season Build time...?!?!

[IKE]

We were over by 9 pounds at 4am of ship day this year. We went home slept a couple hours came back and were 1 pound under by noon.

I am not a big fan of swiss cheesing a robot. I am a much bigger fan on taking 1/8 materials and swapping it down to 1/16th. Costly, Yes, but you reduce the weight by 50%. We dropped 4 pounds for $40. Think about it.

Remeber the bylaws of weight reduction:

1. Do the math. Have a plan on how to get there. The reason we were able to drop the weight was that at 4 am we took some measurements and made a plan for when we came in. While the swiss cheesing seems to have a lot of glamor to it, figure it out. If you drill a 3/4" hole every inch in an box tube you will loose most of the weight of that hole (some shavings will cling). Let's do the math. (.75)^2*pi/4 is equal to .44. Thus 1-.44 is .56 material left.on a 4 foot struct of 1x1 box, this is 47x4 holes or 188 holes. Reducing the material thickness by 1/2 is a 50% reduction and usually less work.

2. Attack the dense materials first. If it is steel, can it be replaced with AL plastic or wood?.

3. Can you use a thinner material? Switching 1/8 box to 1/16 wall box is a 50% reduction in weight (see example above). Attack large surface area panels. If you switch for 1/8" Lexan to .060", you reduce it by 50%. Better yet if it is just a cover use 030 and attach it with velcro instead of bolts.

4. Be prepared to swiss cheese. Have a corded drill, an extension cord, a good uni-bit or step drill, tape measure, and a center punch. Also cover your electronics as you are about to make a giant mess.
The reason for the corded drill is that you will drain battery drills too fast with this process. Nothing more depressing than trying to make a fix with a dead battery.

5. Decontent. Decide what is necessary to compete vs. what you wanted. Do you really NEED 4 drive motors or will 2 do. Do you really need that extra arm, or can you do something else and remove it. This year you will need to move, but you don't necessarily have to do anything else.

6. Keep on the lookout for good weight savings ideas. Maybe you can find a couple other pounds with a fresh set of eyes, and then ad the arm back on.