Ray .::. mandi .::. sam .::. madison .::.

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Pictures updated 02/5/2002
I went a little nuts with the layout fluid but hey, this is the first time I've ever used it. I really like how easy it is to scribe lines, and they show up so clearly.
One wheel hole cut. I clamped both the top and bottom plates together before cutting and machining them so they are exactly the same. The old top and bottom plates were never very close to each other dimensionally.
Two holes cut and the wheels even fit in place, yippy...
I used a 1/8" end mill to cut out these squares. I suppose it have been a little easier to cut out the squares with a jig saw then clean up the edges on the mill. Then again, you haven't seen my jig saw...
A nicely cut bottom plate with burrs filed off. Glad I didn't get rid of the files after I got the milling machine. I still use them a lot!
And a top plate that is EXACTLY the same as the bottom!
The front wheels mounted to the bottom plate. It took so little time to make these new pillow blocks that I didn't even get any pictures of their fabrication. ;-)
I set the hinged front end between the plates to make sure everything was going to fit. I've got a little tweaking here and there but for the most part the pieces fit together nicely.
The hinge in place.
Pictures updated 01/25/2002
I'm learning to dial in every piece I cut on the mill. You don't want to waste some material just because you forgot to make sure everything was square.
Cutting the front half of the new hinged wedge. It takes forever to take off any substantial amount of material when cutting steel. Cutting this half of the wedge took about 12 milling hours. And that's only 1018 cold rolled steel.
Front half of the wedge is only half cut. Ugh.
The two hinge pieces, the front half, with 10 degree angle, is only half cut.
These 15 one inch long AL pieces will become the actual hinge with a 3/16" stainless steel rod though them for the pin.
Finally finished the front half of the hinged wedge. Totally mill time, about 24 hours.
Here, cutting the back half of the hinged wedge.
Still cutting the back half of the hinge. That step is so I can mount this piece to the 3/16" Al armor. That's right, the step is 3/16".
Just a little test fit. None of the hinge pieces are actually mounted.
And we have one half of a hinge.
Drum roll please. Ladies and gentleman, I give you a hinged wedge.
And look at that, it actually hinges.....
Since I had such a hard time controlling Some Parts at last Novembers BattleBots, one step I'm taking is getting more rubber on the ground. To do that in the front I'm double up the wheels. On the right are the old wheels and on the left the new double wheels. If you're following the latest Malvolio rebuild you'll notice that doubling up is getting popular in the Raybotics camp...
Since there seemed to be too much wasted space between the wheels I machined the little hub of the wheels on the mating side. Saved about 1/4" in wasted space. Hey, like a dog, sometimes you do it just because you can. ;-)
Pictures updated 01/01/2002
Since I now have the capacity to make the pillow blocks for Some Parts with far greater accuracy then when I did them with a hacksaw and a file I decided to make new ones for the next itteration. Here are the aluminum blanks. Storing my raw materials near my water spigot has left some oxidation. No problem, comes right off.
Blanks mounted in the angle vise.
Making sure the blanks and vise are square to the milling head.
Freshly flattened pillowblock ends milled to 10 degrees. The face mill, similar to a fly cutter, really throws off some chips. I had to take my Jeep out of the garage to keep the chips off it... They hurt when they hit your arms and face too.
Nice flat pillowblock ends.
Four completed pillow blocks, minus hole of course. These took me about three hours to cut and mill. It took me about a week to finish four the first time.
Pictures updated 10/10/01
A rolling test bed for the drive train and the pillow blocks et al. Using the Tekin Rebels on some Hawkers SLA's at 12V. The Rebels may or not make it into the final version...
Welding one of the outrigger frames.
Side view of the frame and structure.
Bottom or top view of frame and structure. I think you can see what I'm going for here.
Top or bottom view again.
I had to paint some parts so Some Parts wasn't just a bunch of metal looking metal. Uh, well, I think you know what I'm try to say.
I painted the pillowblocks and the outrigger frames. Those outriggers are the only frame type structure in the bot.

Here's the bottom with drive train in place. Includes some of the other items like batteries (no longer SLA's... No longer 12V...) and some of the RC stuff. I'm just laying things out for placement.
Rear view of same stuff as above.
Side view of the same stuff as above the above.
The finished switch.
The switch installed.
Using the switch.
And here we have a completed bot. Wow, look at that. That was quick. Total build time took about two months.
Side of of a completed Some Parts.
And the obligatory front/top/bottom view. The fit and finish aren't perfect but I'm quite happy with how things turned out with this bot. I think my building skills have improved quite a bit from Malvolio. Hopefully I'll only continue to get better. The bathroom scale says 56 pounds so I hope that means I'll be closer to 58 or 59 pounds at Treasure Island in a few weeks.
Pictures updated 9/13/01
The two completed rear pillow block/gear/pulley/wheel assemblies.
Another view of the two pillow block/gear/pulley/wheel assemblies.
The two pillow block/gear/pulley/wheel assemblies mounted on the top/bottom armor plate. I can decide if I'm building this thing right side up or upside down and which side is top and which is bottom...
Another view of the pillow block/gear/pulley/wheel assemblies mounted.
Side view of the pillow block/gear/pulley/wheel assembly mounted. Here you can see the clearance of the wheels through the armor.
A semi detail of one of the pillow block/gear/pulley/wheel assemblies mounted

The layout of the front and rear assemblies. The front pillow block set is mounted but the wheel/pulley is not in the bearings yet. Belt is just strung out to give an idea of how things will work.

That's Malvolio in the background. Poor Malvolio, he's been so neglected since I started work on Some Parts...
Bottom/top view. You can see the wheel sticking out through the armor.
Pictures updated 7/30/01
When you don't have any fancy schmancy cutting tools you use what you got. I set up a 10 degree cut in my miter box and got busy with the hack saw. I cut a little long because this method doesn't give a perfectly straight cut.
I then manually milled the piece to size with a nice flat bastard.
Here are three of the first four pillow blocks. I need eight total.
This is sort of the layout for these pieces. Obviously the wedge will be attached to the top and bottom of these pillow blocks.
And one completed assembly. This is a front assembly, probably left.
Same assembly, different angle, better lighting. The front axles will be driven off the rear axles similar to how I did Malvolio, via belts. A 4WD lightweight wedge ought to have some good pushing power.