My team mentors have let me take on a personal project on the side during the off season to promote robotics, I call it the show bot, or as my mentors have begun to call it ''The Russell Bot" I am already got these things planned for it:
Speaker system / car stereo
catapult mounted on top
a “flag pole” that moves the team banner up and down
Old ambulance Lights or "cheery’s’’ ( one red, one white)
What would you think would be good to add onto this? keep in mind that everything has to follow one thing that it is
At the last minute my friend Ryan and I threw together what I call RoverBot. It is a white box on wheels with a Camera on a 2 axis servo mount that draws the attention of people to go check out what is inside the white box at our booth. Plus the kids get a kick out of it when the driver makes them think they are controlling it with hand actions.
The first modification I would do is to replace every piece of PVC with something that won’t shatter if it breaks.
If PVC breaks under air pressure, it tends to shatter, and the shards go far–read pain to anybody who gets hit. Air is not the same as water, which is what PVC is rated for.
That said, I do remember hearing that ABS pipe does not have that problem. If you were to make your accumulation system of that, and leave PVC in the barrel, you should only have a potential issue if the barrel clogs (and most of the time, the clog would be the ammo on its way out of the firing end.
If you were to use PVC, I would highly suggest investing in some plywood or other similar material to build a box to contain the storage part of the system. Use the extra flat space for more cool stuff (spray paint is cheap, good place for lights, could always put sponsors or ads on it, you get the picture).
Its just bare bones at the moment but tomorrow i will post a picture after our team meeting to give you guys a better idea of what im working with and i will try to get a good item that will allow you guys to estimate the sizes
I would treat that as something that would be risky. First, the barrel isn’t the most likely thing to go; the accumulator is. Screwing it in creates the chance of a leak that would reduce range. Second, and more important: I would not trust duct tape to hold in shrapnel, even that way. It will find a seam, with the air helping. If it doesn’t find one, duct tape can tear much easier than a protective shield made of, say, plywood.
I stand by my suggestion of building a box around it to contain any potential shrapnel. Doesn’t have to be fancy, doesn’t have to be expensive–but if you plan right, that box could serve more purposes than just shielding. Mounting for gauges so you know when you’re ready to shoot (and how far, maybe), advertising space, place to put lights, cover for the cannon, “mysterious box that produces T-shirts at high speed”, you get the picture.