Some questions about building an Antweight

All things antweight

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MarkR
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by MarkR »

For me, I'd either

* Get some off the shelf tiny steel or aluminum right-angle brackets - but most are too large for antweights
* Get an extruded alu right-angle piece and drill some holes in it

OR

* Strip-bend the polycarbonate.

Perhaps the strongest and lightest way is to strip-bend the plastic. This is a technique which works well if you have a suitable machine or rig to do it; it can be built quite easily with a bench PSU, some nichrome wire, a few croc clips and some rudimentary joinery. (NB: be safe :) )

A hot air gun can also work to locally heat the plastic to bend it, but it's quite tricky to get it to bend in the correct place, especially for the 2nd bend in the same piece.

I've used a "soldering rework" hot air gun to locally heat small pieces. The bigger hot air guns used by decorators, etc, are much too big for the parts on an antweight.

Or you could just put it in an oven at a low-ish temperature, I'm not sure what the right temp is for PC, but for acrylic it's about 140C.
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peterwaller
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by peterwaller »

If you are looking to bend polycarbonate up to 1.5 mm thickness you can just cold bend it in a vice or with pliers and you actually get a neater fold.
The thing you must not do is score the line as it will then snap along the score line.
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GeorgeR
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by GeorgeR »

I can confirm that the dasmikro doesn't have a receiver built in, you will need a separate one (the lemonrx is good).
As for polycarbonate, i wouldn't recommend hot forming, it's very easy to overheat it which causes it to be very brittle when it cools. As Pete said up to 1.5mm can be bent cold, and you shouldn't need thicker than that for an antweight.
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SnazzyMadazzy
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by SnazzyMadazzy »

Ok thanks for the replies. I will cold bend the polycarbonate. How would I hinge the flipper?
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peterwaller
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by peterwaller »

I used to use a single piece of piano wire that went across the full width of the robot but now I use 2mm dia carbonfibre rod as it is lighter.
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Rod on ebay.
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Paulmchurd
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by Paulmchurd »

How did you go about attaching the flipper plate to the wire. Without 3D printed rings to fit through. I can't seem to find a decent hindge system.

I've glued paper clip ends onto the flipper panel which has worked so far. For battle though. I feel glue will not hold for long.

I was thinking maybe using this...

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dolls-House-Mi ... SwGwlaL5uG
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peterwaller
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by peterwaller »

Brass is very heavy why not cut the flipper plate with two tabs on the side which you bend up and drill to fit the rod.
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Paulmchurd
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by Paulmchurd »

Ahhh smart idea.

Thanks
SnazzyMadazzy
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by SnazzyMadazzy »

With regards to ordering the DasMikro, should I order option A, B or C. I'm guessing A as it has built-in tank style mixing and I think the robot drives like a tank.
Paulmchurd
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Re: Some questions about building an Antweight

Post by Paulmchurd »

Yes you want option A
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