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NSWRFC Marayong Season X Planning
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Nick
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NSWRFC Marayong Season X Planning



Event and arena planning

We should start talking about Season 10's event calendar; I figure we can fit in another 3 feather events and the same or more for mixed beetle & ant events.


Arena Upgrades

The maintenance we did was good, but there are already some large gashes in the floor and when we get more spinners running, the floor will need fixing after every event.

I propose to personally fund a full steel floor and inner wall upgrade, possibly with filled-in corners like the QLD ant arena. I'm keen to hear what people suggest for the type & thickness of the steel. I figure we can just lay it over the existing MDF and with a backing, steel should not dent from large spinner hits.

Getting the steel plasma cut into tiles will make construction a bit easier and we can just MIG weld it at the corners and a few spots on the edges to keep everything flat and in place.

I am not sure when the cash will be available; probably more than a month away. We should still make and cost the plan ASAP so everything can proceed the minute I can pay for it.

Post Sun Feb 17, 2013 12:27 pm 
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dyrodium
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Bring on the events! Twisted Evil

There was some light discussion on what people would like next, but it seems general consensus for a beetle and ant event would be a good idea, we can alternate between the two for the rest of the year, with planning for the possible QLD events.

An all steel arena will certainly cut down on the sawdust, but will be a lot harsher on the spinners. It could be possible to have some heavy duty filler on hand and after the feather event go and pot the gashes as an alternative but it certainly will get fairly smashed once scissorhands and demon join the fray!

First things first is that front wall! A drop out area seems a bit pointless now catastrophe has hurled a robot clean out of the arena Laughing But we still need to replace and protect that polycarb... Filled in corners could provide additional knock out zones. Just my 2c . Smile

EDIT: And it would be really nice if we could somehow recover that $900 in the bank! I wasn't a part of that so don't know who were signatures but seems Chris was the primary?
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Post Sun Feb 17, 2013 12:41 pm 
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Nick
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True that front wall definitely needs replacement! I think we were talking about steel at the bottom and then polycarb. How about a steel rectangular section at the base of the wall, which would be easy to bolt down and will provide great support for the polycarb as well? Alternatively. we can get a steel strip plasma cut and weld it down, which would give the most design options.

Post Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:04 pm 
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Jaemus
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Woah Nick, awesome Smile Im sure I dont have to tell you exactly how expensive that's going to be?

Angus: While your point about steel floor being harsher on spinners is true, I don't see that as a reason not to do it. Speaking as a spinner operator now, if your robot takes damage from its own impact with the floor, then that's damage well deserved Smile

Personally I have no problem with filled in corners / and / or chuck out zones, but I would really like a proper pit. It's not like wedges or brickbots or even armed robots that have experienced weapon failure are going to be able to chuck each other out.

Maybe if pit too hard, a section of the wall that opens. This is where I'd personally like to see some money & time spent
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Post Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:03 pm 
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Jaemus
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BTW I dont know what exactly you had in mind budget wise, Nick, but even a thin "wearplate" grade steel could be the go here in my narrow and uneducated opinion Smile I figure if the money is going to be spent, may as well do it properly/ 3mm hardox or something? Over the MDF as you say shouldnt dent or tear too much. Will make awesome sparks too Smile

This would be helped along by access to the club funds yeah
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<Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

Post Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm 
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Nick
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Sure - 3mm Hardox or 5mm Bisalloy 320 will both last a long time. We can spend the club funds, or I am quite OK with just doing it alone; I was thinking there wouldn't be any change from $3K even if we do a lot of the work ourselves. Cost isn't a big concern right now...

Building a pit that can work reliably with all our spinners might be difficult - perhaps we can make an above ground pit by making a corner with a low wall with a ramp that a wedge could push an opponent in to?

I will try to get a price for some steel over the next week so we can make some solid plans, work on a CAD layout, etc.

EDIT: can someone PM me Jeff's number? I will need to OK all this first.

Post Sun Feb 17, 2013 4:56 pm 
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andrew



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although that all sounds amazing as a friend i must say Nick, go have a holiday or buy a new car or enjoy yourself a bit man

Robot combat is an amazing hobby which i love but man your talking alot of moolah here, use that money to enjoy yourself and well sort some stuff out

shit putting replaceable boards up there will work to me, cheap and easy to prepare and shove it in place when need be

As much as a wear plate clad arena built in a rental property garage sounds (seriously itll be awesome) the other part of me must come to surface saying use that money to go and live it up man. Overseas holiday, new car, im sure that money can be better invested for your own happyness
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Post Sun Feb 17, 2013 8:50 pm 
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Nick
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LOL, I had a good & long think about 'Enjoying myself a bit'. Outside of replacing Jamie on Mythbusters, a world tour of roller-coasters or a trip to the ISS, just messing about in the workshop and at robot events is right up there and WAY more practical!

Its a bit crass to 'flash the cash', but let's just say that I am pretty sure that I will be getting a solid 6 figure cheque in the next month or three (pending lawyers and supreme court documents, so its not a done deal yet). It absolutely not enough to make up for my loss, but it would be stupid NOT to use some on my main hobby.

On a practical level, the MDF bumpers on the walls worked a treat last Saturday, so I don't have a problem just replacing them as needed; its the floor and front barrier that we need to work on.

Post Mon Feb 18, 2013 1:20 am 
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Valen
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The only issue with the floor is it needs to be stronger than our armour.
If a spinner is putting holes in angled 6mm steel bots it'll do the same to the floor. that'll require more than some bog to fix.

I wonder if we should polish up the beetle arena.
get the doors and such like working.
A nice flat floor would be great there.
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Post Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:19 am 
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Jaemus
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The robots dont have 25mm of MDF and then more steel and then concrete tiles behind the steel tho... composite armour floor Smile

I agree, beetle arena needs some fettling, but no real need until there is a public event. It should also be stored at Marayong inside the feather arena imo.

That said, we need a quick way to run beetles at Marayong unless everyone would rather set up the portable arena there.

Also, Ant arena could also use some love. Needs some signage! Websites, logos, color, 'danger tape', etc and the floor needs the jags ground down. Could do a half day on this, maybe piggybacked onto the next Marayong event?
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<Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

Post Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:20 am 
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marto
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Ah guys just remember. No one has punched through 3mm mild in our arena. Bots only get cut through as the edges provide something for them to catch on.

Steve
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Post Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:30 am 
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shreddy



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^ like marto said, bots mostly get glancing blows at the ground and the solid composite structure helps. Even in the robowars arena, the only damage I can recall is a gouges from demon and plenty of circlework left by hurricane from scratching up the floor coating.

That said, it reminds me of tales of battlebots. How The Judge was poking holes in the floor that had to be welded up after every one of its matches. They were then asked to use a blunt hammer but this was then warping entire floor plates instead so they had to switch back haha.

Perhaps assembling the steel floor in a way that, should you need, you can cut it out and replace it.
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Post Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:40 am 
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marto
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The other thing I think you also have to remember is a steel floor is adding even more infrastructure to a rental premises, is there anything wrong with the MDF? If there is replace it and fix the wall then just get back to events rather than screwing round with the arena.

Just my 2c, Steel floor would be nice, but impractical, although more practical than for a portable arena.

Steve
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Post Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:22 pm 
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Nick
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Does anyone know if there is a Hardox supplier in Sydney? I have several Bisalloy suppliers who can plasma cut the floor , but not one local Hardox supplier Confused It might be that 5mm Bis 400 is cheaper than 3mm Hardox anyway, but its worth checking. Does anyone recall the arena size? I think its a bit over 5 metres on each side.

For construction, we will have to get the steel plasma cut into manageable panels and it would make sense to include a couple of locating tabs on each edge of the panels to make sure everything aligns before the parts are welded. 5 mm thick steel weighs almost 40 Kg per square meter, so keeping the panels small will make assembly easier. Given the sheet size of 2485 by 8000mm, a panel 1230 by 980mm will weigh 47Kg with very little waste material.

If we want a quickie Beetle arena, we can get some mounting points added to the main floor and then just bolt down some MDF or steel walls as needed. I'm thinking plasma cut holes in the bisalloy and weld-nuts on the back; the holes can be plugged with grub screws when not in use.

Jeff has been renting the house for about 20 years, so we are not too likely to have to rip up the floor any time soon. We spent half a day fixing the MDF floor and after the first event with just one spinner running, the floor already needs repair work. I figure that a low maintenance steel floor will encourage us to have more events as we won't need tedious repairs.

Don't worry about the cost; if anyone wasn't paying attention earlier, I am expecting the estate lawyers to give me a cheque for over $500,000 Shocked might as well spend 0.5% of it on my fave hobby!

Post Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:54 pm 
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Knightrous
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Hardox direct suppliers are located in Brisbane and Perth.
Roll Plate Group (RPG) in Brisbane can cut the hardox into panels and you could get it shipped down via courier.

If your going to sink some money into your arena, why don't you guys look at making a decent mobile arena so you can run some public events? You've a club, you can get insurance, you just need a portable arena Wink
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Post Mon Feb 18, 2013 3:03 pm 
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