Pop!

[josh]

Little package from the States:

2 pump chucks, a tiny fill valve and a tee connector and a gear motor for size comparison. The springair fill valve is at least 3/5 smaller than the robart one, the thread is much longer than it needs to be so I may wack that in a lathe and shave 3 or 4mm off. I think I have all my parts now and the 3D printing has been ordered, Just need to get on and make the pneumatics now.

I've also ordered parts for a flea, haven't even considered what it's going to look like but I'll come up with something

[joey_picus]

Looking *very* nice Josh, I am jealous of your CAD skills and the pneumatic setup looks awesome so far.

Will it be a flea with a weapon?

[josh]

I hope so, I think I'm going to do a carbon fibre monocoque, servo drive with a servo flipper. I'm waiting on an order for some ultra lightweight carbon fibre fabric that should be better to mould in tighter corners and smaller more intricate shapes. I eventually managed to finish booking all my trains and hotel and such today so now it's just a case of finishing enough robots to take with me to the AWS.

[josh]

Physics exam, computer fire, carbon fibre moulding and fish & Chips, interesting day
I've started work on a flea, despite the parts being in the post, I will make them fit somehow:


Just waiting for that top coat to set to see if it needs another before I cut it off the mould. I think the resin was a bit thin as it's run quite a bit but I have just about enough left to do another coat. Made from 3 layers of 2k 190g double twill carbon fibre and epoxy resin, I've laid the cloth at a range of grain directions to hopefully make it more rigid.

[earthwormjim]

Nice.
You seem to have managed to keep the weave nice and thick on the corners. Any tips or trade secrets???

[josh]

The trick is the 5 minutes of tacky period in the resin before it dries, takes about 3 hours with the easycomposites resin I'm using. If you lay the resin down, let it set until it is tacky (you can touch it and leave a finger print but it doesn't come off on your finger) then lay the cloth in the centre and move outwards you can keep the weave even throughout. the cloth will stick straight to it but the threads won't move about when you apply the next coat of resin. you should do this for every layer. I'm yet to master female moulds for a perfect surface finnish but I can create a reasonable surface using a hair dryer to coax out any trapped air in the resin as it dries and then careful sanding if I can be bothered, considering It's going in a box to be destroyed it's not so important

[josh]

I've cut it out of the mould and sanded it a bit, It's not perfect but It will do, probably should have gone easy with the resin it weighs 17g so I might re do it from the 90gsm carbon fibre I'm waiting for when that turns up. Need all my parts to turn up from hongkong now so I can see if it actually fits

[josh]

Does anybody have access to a 3D CAD program that can export to .stp or .igs? I need to convert one of my drawings and none of my software supports these file types.

[daliad100]

What file type is it that needs converting because I might be able to do it?

[josh]

Urm I can do a range, .dae should be okay for most programs but I can also do .stl and .3ds as well?