Feb. 28, 2001- Jan. 9, 2001

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Sept. 4, 2001 - Oct. 18, 2001

August 24, 2001 - July 2, 2001

June 30, 2001 - March 1, 2001


Feb. 28, 2001

We ordered the parts.  We got gears, chains, and sheet metal from McMaster.  The shipping was only $8.00 for next day delivery.  We will have the gears tomorrow.  We also made the wings for the bot.

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Feb. 26, 2001

We are deciding on a controller, and funding the bot with our own money.  We started making the flywheel.

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Feb. 19, 2001

We were rejected by McMaster and are now forced to fund the bot on our own.  Listen to the rejection notice.


Feb. 14, 2001

Well, today was valentines day.  We celebrated by bringing the bot to school.  Mark took the bot to the machine shop next to our school at lunch.  The welder wasn't in at the time, and asked Mark to come back in the afternoon.  In the afternoon, CJ and Mark walked back to the machine shop.  We were taken to the welder in the back room, and waited while he welded.  Dangers involved: welding a galvanized frame results in arsenic, and looking at the welding being done is a must not.  We turned around so we weren't looking, but we still could smell the arsenic.  We went back to school, showed off the bot for a while, then got picked up by Marks mom.  We dropped off the bot and our backpacks, then walked to the post office to mail the sponsorship letter.  Then we walked to Safeway and bought some soda and chips.

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Feb. 8, 2001

We cleaned up the shop, and called McMaster for sponsorship.  They gave us an address, so we will send them a letter.  We also took more pictures of ourselves for the site.


Feb. 7, 2001

We selected our drive train.  We priced all the sprockets, chains, and shafts using parts from McMaster.  The cost will be between $200 and $400.  We have determined that we need sponsorship.


Feb. 6, 2001

We launched the bottle all day.


Feb. 5, 2001

Today we had lots of fun at 120 PSI.  School was out, due to snow.  CJ went to Marks house at 10am, and we immediately went to the air compressor.  We pumped it up, and started launching a nail, through a copper tube, at a Pepsi can, at 80 PSI.  Then, Aaron stopped by for a while and we had more fun shooting the can.  When that got boring, we made a new gasket for the Coke rocket.  Aaron played with the coke bottle at 70 PSI for a while, then he left.  We knew we had to wait till Mark's mom was busy before we could launch, so we went outside to play in the snow.  We started construction of a high speed skiboard track.  We worked, and worked, and worked, and found it to be too tedious to try to get the ski to go fast.  We went inside, downstairs, and restarted the compressor.  We brought the tube outside, and started launching the bottle, at 120 PSI.  It flew.  Check out the website (text, video, pics!).  Fun at 120 PSI.


Feb. 4, 2001

Looks as if Mark has worked on the bot a little.  He took some pictures of the saw blades we may use for the flywheel.  He also put the pieces of the differential's PVC housing together, ready to glue. (he did this by putting the broken ring on one of the end caps, and then screwing the other end on.)  Last, Mark mounted the engine with zip ties - again.

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Feb. 2, 2001

We worked a little on the bot, looking at where to place the saw blade we got at Aaron's.  We then went to The Plumbery and asked if there was a way to remove the PVC ring.  The dude tried, but failed.  We got home, and cut the ring off.  We are going to glue the ring to one cap, and screw the other one on.  Then we spent the rest of the day pressurizing soda bottles.

 


Feb. 1, 2001

We still are trying to get the pipe unscrewed.  We put it on by hand, but we can't get a good enough grip on it to take it back off with wrenches for torque.  We continue to be amused by the power it must take to get the pipes unscrewed.  We also messed with the engine for a while.  We used flat iron to make a mount, which will need to be welded onto the frame.  By the way, we are looking for cheap prices on welding and sheet metal.  Contact us if you can help.


Jan 31, 2001

Today we cut the metal on the frame around the castor.  Now the castor has full 360° turning.  We also spent time, quite a lot of it in fact, trying to get the PVC unscrewed.  We are considering breaking the ring...  We also tried to find a good position for the engine and cut some groves for a mount.


Jan 30, 2001

We put the castor back on.  We played around with the PVC pipe.  We are trying to cut off the main pipe part, to leave the threaded part.  The other two pieces that are meant to screw to it, don't want to go on.  We also added a copper pipe for exhaust.

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Jan 29, 2001

Put the top of the bot on.  Still need to add the castor.  Mark bought a 6 in PVC pipe for the diff housing.


Jan 26, 2001

We worked a little on the frame.  Put the front back on.  Still need to add the top.


Jan 24, 2001

No school today.  CJ spent the night.  Mark awoke to the sound of an electric alarm.  Ignoring it until 9:05.  We were aiming for 6:00...   After we woke up, we played a computer game for a while, then started the MP3's and moved downstairs.  We started rebuilding the frame.  We got the back put on, then spent an hour trying to get it square.  We gave up, grabbed some tools (i.e. Assorted Wrenches, Screwdrivers, Sledge hammer, hacksaw, Crowbar), went upstairs, ate breakfast, hopped into the car.  As CJ got into the car, Mark dropped a Coke, not just a normal Coke mind you, this one was from the gods.  The thing started spewing out liquid.  Mark grabbed it, and shoved it into his mouth.  We then took it into the grass and let it empty itself.  Back into the car we went.  We started the journey to the junkyard.  We entered the gates of the most environmentally friendly place on the planet, and then were greeted by a grunt from a junk yard drone.  We walked into the building, and found out where the OK to rip apart mowers were.  We went there and hacked at a mower for a while, got yelled at by the same junkyard troll that greeted us, then kept hacking until the differential came loose.  We looked at a freon spills, then lugged the differential to the building, and haggled the price down to $10.  We shoved it into the car, and went to the mall for lunch (please ask us about the washing our hands story) and shopped at Wards.  By the time we got out of Wards...well...we rushed to the orthodontist.  Mark got tuned up, then we drove back home.  We squared the back of the frame and started rebuilding.  We rebuilt until 7:00, then CJ went home.

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Jan 23, 2001

The description here is a little brief.  Sorry, I'm sick with a cough, a 101.8 fever, and the chills (by the way, I still went to school, shook violently all day, and walked to Marks house in the snow).  Not too much happened with the bot.  CJ labeled all the connections with masking tape, while Mark tore it apart.  We set the pieces onto a table.  We hope we know how to put it back together.  It's a Bot by Number!

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Jan 22, 2001

The basement felt like the pit today, as we had the wheeling of the air compressor socket wrench.  We disassembled the bot, and will put it back together tomorrow.  We also spent a great deal of time running a 16 gauge wire to the basement.  Still sounds bad, but not as bad as the 22 gauge speaker wire...


Jan 21, 2001

Mark added some supports and attached the castor.  He ran a wire from his computer to the basement
stereo, we can listen to mp3's.  The quality of the sound is really bad,
probably from the thin wire, on to plan B.  Also, his dad bought a 22 gallon air compressor, we can use
the socket attachment to get the bolts really tight.


Jan 20, 2001

Mark permanently mounted the metal to protect the bottom.  Mark also added the kill switch.  You may also notice that the castor still is not mounted, hence, it is sideways.  We also talked on the phone for a bit about getting the fuel tank.

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Jan 19, 2001

We added the castor and are in the process of mounting it permanently.  We took the ties off the engine and started to make a mount.  We also found a very nice piece of metal, as seen on the pictures, to use to protect the bottom of the bot.  We also resolved the issue of the large flywheel.  We both feel that is is time to raid the junk yard for parts.  I am starting to question how much power I can get from the engine.  I need the specs.  If you see specs for an IDC 520 supreme weed eater engine, e-mail me.

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Jan 18, 2001

The engine was temporarily mounted with zip ties.  It looks pretty good, we managed to get it to the angle we wanted.  The cost of the bot is now $80 because we bought some flat angle iron to use to strengthen the frame, and mount the engine permanently.  The flywheel is causing trouble.  As of now, the flywheel is too large to be effective.  We need a flywheel with a smaller diameter.  We may be able to use a saw blade in place of it, although it would be easy to bend and it won't have much force.  We will also need to be able to stop the flywheel (using clamping brakes, or something similar) in a few seconds.  We called up a few companies asking for sponsorship, and pricing brakes.  We are considering naming the bot Siege or Hannibal.  The bot is really starting to take shape.  It now weighs about 15 pounds.

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Jan 12, 2001

Cost so far is $70, for nuts, bolts, and angle iron (galvanized).  Mark and I have been working on the frame for about a week.  We completed it today and CJ brought it to school (I had lots of heads turning, and lots of people inquiring about what I made with my Erector set).  The frame itself weighs 9 lbs.  We plan to run the bot on a turbocharged IDC weed eater engine with nitro injection.  It will have a 25 lb flywheel as the weapon.  We also have chosen a drive train.

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Jan 9???, 2001

Around this time, Mark bought some angle iron and started the frame.

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   History...   


Original Introduction Thing.  (Yes, I left it here.)

This is our bot.  Cost so far is $80, for nuts, bolts, and angle iron (galvanized).  Mark and I have been working on the frame for a while, completed it Jan 12, 2001 and I brought it to school.  The frame itself weighs 9 lbs.  We plan to run the bot on a turbocharged IDC weed eater engine with nitro injection.  It will have a 25 LB flywheel as the weapon (which is giving us trouble, we need one that has a smaller diameter).  We may be able to use a saw blade in place of it, although it would be easy to bend and it won't have much force.  We need to be able to stop the flywheel (using clamping brakes, or something similar) in a few seconds.  The engine was temporarily mounted Jan 18, 2001 with zip ties.  It looks pretty good, we managed to get it to the angle we wanted.  I am tired of this layout of the page.  I think I may want to order our progress by date.