Man, seems like I have been really busy lately. I have been pushing a little hard to get VI finished up in time to have a couple of weeks to practice driving.

I have a ton of pics this time, should be the biggest update yet. That's what I get for skipping a weekend :)

Guess I'll just start with the next thing I did after Build update 7. Motor mounts for my EV Warriors. I found these 4" diesel exhaust flaps at my local "Tractor Supply Co." after looking for literally a couple of months for an "off the shelf" type mount.

I can't tell you how many times I walked through every isle in TSC, Home Depot, Lowe's, and Wal Mart with an EV in my hand looking for the solution. I was REALLY glad to come across these guys.

Weak Point:
Looks like the mount was connected to the ring using resistance weld. Possibly not strong enough to keep the EVs put. Easy to fix with a mig ;)

Strong Point:
The distance between the holes on the mount is 1". That will fit perfectly over a horizontally mounted piece of 1" square steel tubing. Groovy.

Solution to weak point.

Okay, so the welds are ugly. You can tug on these all day now and they will stay together though. And that was the effect I was looking for ;)

Frame work. Setting up to weld the supports in, so I can remove the cross sections and allow the saw blades to pass through the front of the frame.

Here you can see where I have already welded "up" to the two cross sections from the two supports going through the bottom of the frame.

Here's a shot of the cross-sections welded in place.

The mounted bearings that support the saw blades will rest over the connecting pieces, after the sections between the supports are cut out.

Now, every thing welded in place that I needed to before cutting the material out for the blades to pass through.

Next stop: Vise & Sawzall

Chop Chop!

It's hard to tell in this image, but there was a considerable amount of overhang (where I made the cuts) that needed to be grinded down.

Poop.

After making the cuts, the two sections of frame running through the middle bowed out. You can see here that they stick past the rest of the bottom.

To fix the bow, I grinded a groove out in the center of the cross-sections. Then I cut almost all the way through (everything except one of the four walls) to relieve the stress causing the bow. It didn't go on its own after making the cuts though :/

My view of what made it "go" ;)

After cutting the material out for the blades, of course I had to throw them on and see what it looked like :)

They are VERY just "thrown on" in this pic, (shaft is way way too long, etc.) but it does give you an idea of what the 12" saw blades will look like on the robot.

Around the same time, I sent off my BattleBots entry form and check.

I know it was kinda late, but I did the online registration the day it came out.

Okay, back to work. Here's a shot of the frame with the excess overhang of the cuts I made, grinded down.

This took a while, as there was a lot of material to be grinded off.

Here's is an image of some material I found to use on the front of VI.

I think it's galvanized 1/8" steel, but I'm not really sure :) I do know it is hard as heck, and fairly heavy. I might end up ditching it, but it was free so it doesn't really matter.

You can see the marks I made before cutting in the previous pic. Here's the shot after I ran the sawzall down each side.

In this image, it is hard to see what I'm trying to show.

It is a pic of the 1/4" plate of 6061 T6 clamped in place to the bottom of the frame. I took it before grinding/filing the edged down to match the frame dimensions.

I wanted the pic to show the plate overhanging the frame. I left the size pretty big, to show as much detail as possible. That 6061 was tough on my grinder. When I went to the file to finish up, it was tough on me :)

Some loud grinding and hard filing later... Much better.

While I had it aligned perfectly and clamped, I figured I would go ahead and mount the plate to the frame.

"That wont fit in your cheapo drill press." you might say. Well, you would be right. So I made my marks, punched the starting groves, and used my hand drill :P

Alright, last pic (I told you it was going to be a long update!).

I followed behind with a countersink bit and tapped the holes. I am using 1/4" flathead machine screws to hold everything in place.

I will finish the other three sides tomorrow, and weld some more on that frame. The frame still needs to have gussets welded in places, and materials to support the drivetrain and two stage gear reduction.

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