WOW!  We got a whole lot done today.

1.) Lyle bored four new wheel axles from solid 5/8" diameter steel round stock - they are much lighter than solid axles but much stornger than the ones we bent during practice.

2.) Kenneth and Stellan drilled many holes and and turned the wheel-to-sprocket adapter bushings down in the lathe (OD and ID) to remove weight.

3.) Kenneth and Stellan installed the drilled-lightened AndyMark tuffbox frames on the wheel drive tuffboxes.

4.) We installed the drive sprocket and bearing bushing in the Kicker. Then we balanced the Kicker - when the Kicker runs it has just about NO vibration. Also, with the new Grainger-supplied sprocket, the motor can run full speed and the kicker is actually running near the speed we want it to.

5.) Rio cut down the two wheel axles that survived the practice session and made new tipper arm pivot pins.  Rio also welded up new lifter platform pivot pins - the old ones were bent up form doing the rool manuever.

6.) Kenneth bored out some big holes in the battery hold down to drop some more weiht.

All in all we did a whole lot of work today.

The bottom line: The new kicker KICKS BUTT! with little vibration. KUDOS to the INVENTOS for drawing up the kicker and using INVENTOR to get the center of mass at the axle centerline.  It required a whole lot of iterative try-and-try-again but it was TOTALLY WORTH THE EFFORT!

At this time we are slightly underweight and have the ability to add the hook and swervo to allow us to latch onto the goal after we pull ourselves up. 

We also have the freeboard to add the necessary  (required) sponsorship signage.

At this time, the only thing we need to complete on the robot is the hook.  This hook will not need a group of students for two shifts to get accomplished....so I am hereby cancelling the Sunday Afternoon and Sunday Evening  shifts.

Therefore.....if you show up over here Sunday afternoon or evening Saint Lisa will laugh at you and tell you that I, the Chief Geek, am off train geeking somewhere and you are welcome to clean up in the back yard.

MANY MANY MANY THANKS TO THE STUDENTS AND MENTORS WHO HAVE WORKED THE EXTRA SHIFTS TO GET US TO THIS POINT!  GREAT JOB FOLKS!

....AND TO EVERY STUDENT AND MENTOR THAT SPENT TIME ON THIS ROBOT...THIS ROBOT IS A BEAST!  GREAT JOB!  WE'RE GONNA KICK BOOTIE!  This is going to be a great robot, it's gonna look like a million bucks on the field, it's gonna be hugely competitive and cool, and the audience is gong to go crazy when we do our stuff.  Y'all have done a great job building this beast so you deserve a huge cheer.

Beditme for us old geeks, TL CG