soldering

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kickboxer
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soldering

Post by kickboxer »

Hi guys ive just ordered my stuff for my robot (should be here tuesday)and im going to solder the armour together to make the body.
im just asking will the solder stand up well .
plus im quite good at soldering .
thanks
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joey_picus
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Post by joey_picus »

...solder the armour together? What are you using as armour?

I use combinations of Ti, polycarbonate, aluminium, and a bit of carbon fibre on Arcus - all bolted together which makes repairs easy.
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kickboxer
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Post by kickboxer »

Joey wrote:...solder the armour together? What are you using as armour?

I use combinations of Ti, polycarbonate, aluminium, and a bit of carbon fibre on Arcus - all bolted together which makes repairs easy.
im using polybycarbonate .
but im soldering everything together except the panel behind the disk so that i can get the electronics inside out.
is solder a good way to put the armour together :-? :-?
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joey_picus
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Post by joey_picus »

You can't really use solder on plastic, to my knowledge ;P

Depending on the thickness of the polycarbonate you may be able to fold and bolt it together to create a shell out of one piece from a template. Otherwise you can use a soldering iron to melt the edges of and 'weld' plastic panels together, but I'm not at all sure if that works on polycarb so I would wait for someone more advanced in their knowledge than I am to comment, heh.
Joey McConnell-Farber - Team Picus Telerobotics - http://picus.org.uk/ - @joey_picus
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kickboxer
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Post by kickboxer »

Joey wrote:You can't really use solder on plastic, to my knowledge ;P

Depending on the thickness of the polycarbonate you may be able to fold and bolt it together to create a shell out of one piece from a template. Otherwise you can use a soldering iron to melt the edges of and 'weld' plastic panels together, but I'm not at all sure if that works on polycarb so I would wait for someone more advanced in their knowledge than I am to comment, heh.
okay .
shall i ask peter waller or someone.
and its 3mm thick polycarb#

plus.
is polcarb quite greasy.
or is it jut normal cause they say you can solder plastics that arent greasy :)
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Post by josh »

Polycarbonate is quite gummy to machine but i wouldn't say it is greasy, they mean plastics like oilon and other self lubricating plastics. You can weld polycarbonate together though it is much stronger to hot fold at 3mm or use brackets and bolts/tap holes in the sides and bolt the pieces with m2 bolts.
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Jonny
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Post by Jonny »

i melted a chassis together out of polycarb, i found folding and bolting to be much easier and stronger
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kickboxer
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Post by kickboxer »

josh wrote:Polycarbonate is quite gummy to machine but i wouldn't say it is greasy, they mean plastics like oilon and other self lubricating plastics. You can weld polycarbonate together though it is much stronger to hot fold at 3mm or use brackets and bolts/tap holes in the sides and bolt the pieces with m2 bolts.
i might do a test try with a pare piece of polycarb.
then if it works i can tell everyone.
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Simon Windisch
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Post by Simon Windisch »

Polycarbonate is thermoplastic, I think, so you should be able to weld it with a soldering iron, I don't know if the join would stand up to a kick from a spinner through. I'd guess not, Worth a try though. Try it and then bash the joint against something hard and see if the joint is as strong as the rest of the polycarbonate.

Also, I don't know anything about your robot, but once it's all welded together will you be able to fix it between combats? i.e. replace a wheel, change a crystal/battery, resolder a control board etc. If you can't do running repairs then you might regret chosing such a design.

P.S. I agree that folding and bolting is the best way of ending up with a strong body.
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Team Orr
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Post by Team Orr »

I think Gary solder welded the armor on the latest R.O.N.N.Y, so he's the person to ask, i think he used HDPE though.

i agree that its much better to drill/tap and bolt a chassis together rather than solder weld it, you could also fold it, i cold folded the chassis for my latest flea and its really nice, you can also apply heat for a nicer bend, as cold folding has a slight tendency to shatter the material if its brittle, i use sometimes a cheap kitchen blowtorch (like you use for cr?me brul?e's) and clamp the material in a vice, but you could quite easily use a lighter or even matchs. i remember when i was doing a repair at a AWS i used the heat coming of a halogen desk lamp to make the chassis more plyable 8) so yeah folding/bolting is much better than solder welding IMHO

good idea though
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