Over weight robot

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Shane 2429

drill anything not structural and if that doesn't help any drill more holes between those holes also look for anything not entirely necessarily and see if can removed

so in short drill holes drill holes and drill more holes

Calculate the mass of the holes before you drill any. Use the volume of a cylindrical hole times the density of the material you're thinking of drilling. This should only take a few minutes to estimate.

Additionally, some cost-benefit analysis of your mechanisms and drilled holes is in order. Are you better of by sacrificing a mechanism and just getting the robot finished, or by taking the next day or so to drill holes in things?

And this goes without saying: everyone participating in your decision must understand the weight limits in the rules.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Priyesh69

We are taking out the manifold and the compressor

Queston: will we have enough air

Enough air for what? If you have 2 plastic tanks and one cylinder like in the photo, probably yes, for one time. If you have 2 cylinders and others, then maybe not. TRY IT AND SEE.

[giantmidget31]

We were very overweight, so we took off our shooter! It wasn't working that well, and we were easily able to turn our disc lifter into a level 1 dumper, which may even score more points than the level 3 shooter, and we still have our climber.

[Swampdog]

Holes Help. We lost 3 lbs last night. Do you have Aluminum gears in your gear boxes? That can be .4-.8 lbs depending on gear boxes.Do you have the small compressor? Do you need to motors on your shooter? How many drive sims? If 4 do you really need 4? Are you sure about your scale? Are you picking up off the floor? Do you have to? Seems like we have a fat robot every year usually don't name him until he is under. 119.9 is all it takes. Good luck.

[Jibri Wright]

Try replacing a compressor with a mini compressor, use a smaller c-Rio (we normally use the 4-block one), attach electronics to polycarbonate and Velcro them on.

[Jeffy]

A few things:
-Replace all of the sheet metal with similar thickness polycarbonate.
-I can't see your battery mount, but based around the way the bot is built, it's probably overbuilt, but easy to modify
-Drop all the clips that hold in the pneumatic tanks and use 3-4 zipties.

Best of luck!

[akgsteelers]

It looks like you have a lot of fasteners on your robot. If they are stainless steel or steel. if they are you could replace a lot of those with nylock or aluminum.
Hope this post helps.

[FlusteredRookie]

Our robot also has a weight issue... How strictly is the 120 pound rule enforced?

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by FlusteredRookie

Our robot also has a weight issue... How strictly is the 120 pound rule enforced?

It's a rule in the Game Manual. If you don't meet the rule, your robot is illegal and thus can't compete. And yes, all robots are weighed, at each competition.

[Cal578]

Originally Posted by Gregor

...You can easily shed 10 lbs with just drilling holes, don't do anything drastic.

I disagree; 10 pounds worth of holes is very drastic. We've never been able to lose more than 2 lbs just by swiss-cheesing. Since some of the materials in the pictures look like they are overly heavy, maybe the holes could add up to 4 or 5 pounds.

I would look for structural parts that don't need to be so heavy-duty. Such as C-channel or 80-20 that could be replaced with angle bar, or solid 1/4" plastic or plywood that could be thinner or corrugated.

[tickspe15]

Remake your shooter with lighter materials. Last year we were 20 pounds over we drilled 1023 holes and only lost 8 pounds. The bulk of our weight loss came from switching to lighter ,materials. I recommend you do the same

[cmrnpizzo14]

10 pounds is a lot to lose, but you can do it. Remember that you don't need to lose it all at once, small cuts add up!

First, think of how much you actually need to run your pneumatics, we have used precharged in the past and as long as you don't have a leak it works well. I would recommend taking off the compressor before removing airtanks, it is heavier and less necessary. If you are using a full sized compressor, you could start by switching to the mini one, that will save you about 2 pounds. If you have the mini one and you take it off that will be about the same.

Swiss cheese is good. Find places that you can drill holes or enlarge ones that are not critical or in use. This won't do a ton, but you could probably get 3-4 pounds out of it if you really stretch it. I would say that 3 is a reasonable goal.

Look at all of your bolts. Find which ones are extraneous and take them out. Like the post above said, you probably don't need 3 1/4-20's to hold up the 1/2 pound airtank. 2 would probably be sufficient, even 1. Heck, you could probably get by with zipties for it. That's what we are using. Find all the bolts that extend far past the nuts holding them on. switch them to the smallest possible size that you can use while still going through the nut. This could add up to about 2 pounds depending on how much you guys take out.

Find material that you don't need and remove it. This is basically just drilling holes but bigger. if you have a full plate that a frisbee will slide on, you really only need the ends, take out the middle. When possible, try using 1/16" metal instead of 1/8". It's tough to tell from the picture but this might be able to get another 2 pounds for you guys.

You probably won't want to do this, but you could also find electrical wires that are too long and shorten them to just what you need. This will cut down a pound or two and eliminate any rat's nest you might have.

As a last resort, fill your air tanks with helium before weigh in

Good luck!!!

[Patrick Flynn]

Since you are currently 10lbs over drilling holes is going to be difficult thats a lot of holes. I dont know if there is even room to drill that many holes from your pictures.
I would look over what materials your using, are you using a 1/2'' plate where something much smaller could be use?
Like posted above make sure your battery and bumpers weren't included in that weight.

[Priyesh69]

Our arms are pretty heavy 7lbs each. In this short time we cant get smaller piston.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Priyesh69

Our arms are pretty heavy 7lbs each. In this short time we cant get smaller piston.

Depending on when your regional is, you have time to order lighter ones now that you can drop in during practice day of your event. You also have the withholding allowance....