Yeah, that's why I am a bit disappointed - this stuff is about the same cost as solid CF sheet of the same thickness. I'm sure the ply costs nowhere near what CF does, so the sheets should be a fair bit cheaper.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

disregarding the price using wood as a core material for composites isn't that uncommon, normally though you want stuff like end grain balsa for lightness.
Looks like its high quality ply at least?
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

its definitely top quality ply, juat over-priced. I got birch ply as it was rated high for strength and crush resistance. Dragonplate also has balsa and several types of foam core that are lighter than birch but they had lower structural specs.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Its been a huge week for house renovating, but not so much for bot building. The waterjetting shop won't quote on cutting the Dragonplate for Decimator - they think the waterjet will completely de-laminate the carbon fibre layers. The new plan is to cut out the Dragonplate on the band saw and I luckily bought a high quality dust mask and a skinny band saw blade a few weeks ago.



The plan is to rough-cut on the saw and then use the belt sander to finish the parts off.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Bandsaw will get it done fine I'm sure for that shape, The problem with the CF i think is blowing through the material for holes and internal features, Most places including lazy wizard were happy to do outside profiles and what not.
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www.demon50s.com - Minimoto parts
http://www.youtube.com/user/HyzerGlen - Videoooozzz

Thanks Glen, Dragonplate just replied to my query that they don't recommend waterjetting any of their products, particularly the birch ply laminates. They suggested using a CNC router - I should totally build one of those .

Bandsawing worked out perfectly; virtually no tear-out and the new blade slices through the Dragonplate like hot butter:



This is how the two layers will go together, as seen from underneath. once they are sanded to size, they will be epoxied together and bolted in to the frame.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

watch out putting CF dust through a vacuum, its conductive and some stuff may not like that ;->
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

My vacuum is made by Rolladoor . The belt sander is set up right by the garage door and the dust (mostly) blows outside. The first two parts are sanded to size and now I need to figure out how to glue & clamp them neatly.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Decimator:

The new CF bottom panels are almost done; the first one is glued up, fitted and drilled. I made the huge mistake of using a fast 4 minute open-time epoxy, which went all exothermic on me and started setting before all the clamps were on.



The parts were slightly out of alignment but nothing to worry about. I used the frame as a drilling template and the panel is rock solid.

The 2nd panel got a slower setting glue and is aligned perfectly. Its curing for another couple of hours before a final edge sanding and drilling:


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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

looks like a tasty sandwich ....Nick ya can shove the epoxy in the fridge before ya mix... that should give ya some more working time.

Those fancy clamps look really sexy to ..all except the red one.
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

Yeah, the hot workshop definitely didn't help the glue! I have used that fridge trick before but in this case, I just didn't think before mixing it.

For those clamps, just google 'Kant-twist'. They come in a wide range of sizes and although you can't see it well, they have grooves on some jaw faces to grip tubing - super handy! I think there is a cheaper knock-off brand available locally.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Decimator:

The bandages are coming off and the patient is looking healthy .



This is how Decimator looks with most of it's new parts temporarily in place. The battery and electronics are a tight fit and I might need to shrink the electronics down even smaller. With the new CF base plates screwed in, there is 14mm clearance under the bot and 15mm when inverted; its probably not worth the trouble of shaving some metal off the motor mounts to even it up. The new base plates fall half way between the original thin CF plates and the titanium plates for weight, saving around 200 grams over the Ti plates.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

I mounted the electronics module on it's shock mounts and found a small problem - it doesn't fit in the chassis! There is almost no space under the module to lower it and the TX85A bangs into the top cover mount:



Gizmo, my assistant engineer, can't see an easy solution either:



The only thing I can think of is to reduce the hight of the shock mounts a tiny amount and mill off the heatsink fins around that mounting bracket. That should create just enough clearance so the ESC can't touch the frame.

In better news, Decimator is going from a 5S, 30C Lipo up to a 6S, 65C A-Spec pack. The higher voltage pack fits in the same space and its not much heavier. 5S packs are quite rare and the choice is limited, plus the higher voltage will get the weapon motor a handy speed boost.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Was going to say, can you not just mill down the fins on the rear ESC heatsink around the area where the nut is to give the clearance? Would that not give you enough without altering the shock mounts?
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Jamie
RogueTwo Robots
www.rogue-two-robots.vze.com

With great power, comes great reliability

yeah because more power is really a thing decimator needs ;-P
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets