We milled pockets in our steel front shaft clamp blocks. We drilled holes in the aluminum crossbar support brackets. We drilled 192 holes in my beautiful solid back corners. So we started drilling holes in the frame.

It very quickly became obvious that even with 120 lbs to play with, weight is still a precious commodity. The corners are 3/16вЂі chrome moly plate вЂ“ absolute OVERKILL, but I liked it and thought it was necessary. I did so much welding that the insides of my arms got sunburnt! After some touch-up grinding, we had a frame. I started by making two UвЂ™s, then I bolted the gearboxes in and welded uprights, the support structure for the back corners, and finally, the back corner plates themselves. The first step was to scrap Copperhead 2вЂ™s unsightly crap-steel frame, and weld the new 4130 chrome-moly tube steel one together. I decided (with a little brainstorming help from my dad) to clamp the shaft, and put bearings in the drum.Дesign work finished, we started construction. The second design flaw of CH2, though I wouldnвЂ™t really call it a flaw, was that the drum was held onto a shaft by two set screws and rotated with the shaft on two cast-iron flange mount bearings. We already had most of the components we would need to make it run, so there wasnвЂ™t much to buy. These corners would also serve as a major structural reinforcement. I angled the rear corners to lessen the number of perpendicular вЂњhit-meвЂќ surfaces on the bot. I then drew all the other components we would need, and decided on a frame size. I drew the drum in AutoCAD 2000 (the teamвЂ™s first use of CAD) to see how far forward I could get the drive wheels. Considering that the drum weighed 55 lbs concentrated in the front, this was not an ideal situation for a rear-wheel drive setup. The biggest of which was that there was very little weight over the drive wheels which were in the rear of the bot.

I knew Copperhead had potential, so I redesigned it from the drum up.Д¬opperhead 2 had several major design flaws. Participated in: BotsIQ 2008 (1st place)Д¬opperhead 3 was the first project that I really was a fundamental member of.

Battlebots copperhead