Non-metallic frame

[dtengineering]

In our first year (before the kitbot frame) we just bolted bearing blocks on to a flat sheet of 3/4" plywood. Technically, we had a wooden drive base, I guess. We were going to use 1/2" plywood for the sides and top, but that was a bit heavy, so we went with urethane foam cored fibreglass.

We used the fibreglass on our superstructure the following year and built a wooden arm that probably had a strength/weight ratio higher than any of the aluminum arms that year (we demonstrated it by having two judges stand on a replica of it) and our team's passion for wooden materials was ignited.

The following year we had pulleys turned on the wood lathe from mahogany, bearing blocks cut on the CNC router from maple, and the entire ball shooter mechanism made of baltic birch plywood.... bearings, shafts and such excepted, of course.

Last year our elevator was "all wood"... well, with the exception of some of the hardware, motors and pneumatics, that is.

This year our superstructure is once again wooden, but the plan was to custom build a 6wd chassis out of plywood. That plan got laid by the wayside when the game was announced as the kitbot seemed ideal.

People are always amazed at how much wood we have in our robot... they forget that wood is the original carbon fibre!

Jason

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

We used the fibreglass on our superstructure the following year and built a wooden arm that probably had a strength/weight ratio higher than any of the aluminum arms that year

If you were in Portland that year (I'm guessing 2005, right?) you might remember Wooden Thunder, which sported an Okoume plywood tower that I built from boat scraps to show students that not everything had to be aluminum. The students bolted it onto the kitbot chassis and it is what went to the tournament. I remember a 'bot with a wooden arm (sounds like the beginning of a joke...) that could well have been yours.

[DonRotolo]

1676 is mostly metal, but our gripper is made from a composite consisting of end-grain balsa wood covered with light fiberglass cloth and polyester resin. Very light, incredibly crush-resistant, stiffer than 1/2" CDX plywood too.

Don