Introducing the BPD: Bullet Proof Drive

[pitzoid]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Introducing the Bullet Proof Drive!

Looks like Carlo's, of BattleBots Biohazard fame, Battlekits

[sdcantrell56]

I love it Craig. Good job on the design. Too bad you're not using wood though

Originally Posted by ,4lex S.

I think you just redefined the 6WD for me... Wow.

Perfect modularity and a tough looking frame system. I wasn't aware that merging the two ended well occasionally.

Working under the assumption that those are AM Supershifters, how are the encoder mounts affected by this design?

Thanks! Those exact gearboxes aren't Supershifters. The Supershifter works for this, but needs a little bit of tweaking on the mounting plate (By tweaking I mean drilling two holes and countersinking two more). Also, encoders are mounted elsewhere in the drive. There's a handy-dandy mechanism that will measure left side and right side speed directly off the ground, rather than off the wheel speed. If one really wants to add encoders to the drive system as well, it WOULD open up some interesting traction control ideas... I'll have to look into this.

Originally Posted by sdcantrell56

I love it Craig. Good job on the design. Too bad you're not using wood though

Who says we're not?

But seriously, our team is looking at going green as much as possible from the chassis up, and implementing as much bamboo and other woods as possible. The weight is unbeatable, same for the strength.

[sdcantrell56]

Good good good. We are officially hooked on wood. You should be able to build a killer wooden frame with a table saw and mill, especially if you want to get into biscuiting the joints and even laying it with glass. We used okoume this year and the weight savings is incredible. The density is only.018lbs/cubic in. The only problem with it is that its super expensive and difficult to find. I think for next year we will just go with 12mm baltic birch since we can get it 2 miles from our school and its 1/4 the price of okoume. We also used MAS epoxy to attach everything.

[GarrettF2395]

For some reason, I'm not seeing any pictures on this thread (am I supposed too?)
Could you email me a picture Craig?

[MrForbes]

here it is as a .gif

the original is a way too big (for my browser settings) .png

[GarrettF2395]

Originally Posted by squirrel

here it is as a .gif

the original is a way too big (for my browser settings) .png

Wow! That is impressive! But I wouldn't expect anything less from Craig.

[AdamHeard]

Have you actually tested it's ability to take a bullet?

I can't exactly tell, is this showing off a possible design for your team, or one that you want to encourage lower resourced teams to make?

Originally Posted by sdcantrell56

Good good good. We are officially hooked on wood. You should be able to build a killer wooden frame with a table saw and mill, especially if you want to get into biscuiting the joints and even laying it with glass. We used okoume this year and the weight savings is incredible. The density is only.018lbs/cubic in. The only problem with it is that its super expensive and difficult to find. I think for next year we will just go with 12mm baltic birch since we can get it 2 miles from our school and its 1/4 the price of okoume. We also used MAS epoxy to attach everything.

I would make the arguement that although wood has a lower density, a lighter base can be made with aluminum than with wood for the same function.

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Have you actually tested it's ability to take a bullet?

I can't exactly tell, is this showing off a possible design for your team, or one that you want to encourage lower resourced teams to make?

It wouldn't ACTUALLY take a bullet... Though if someone machines one for me, I'll take it out to the range next week, and open up on it with some 5.56x45's!

It's both a possible design for our team, and something that other teams could make. It's really not too bad machine-wise, all you need is a manual mill and some AM parts.