Wow… I can’t believe I’ve made 10+ versions of this robot and it’s almost a decade old! V10 is my biggest redesign yet. The chassis is all TPU again, except for the baseplate AND the arm supports, which are carbon fiber to keep things rigid.
Laser cutting is great and all, but quite pricey. That’s why, even after all these years, making an insect wedge by cutting it out with a Dremel and/or angle grinder is still my favorite way to do it. I also punch all of the holes with an optical center punch to get super accurate hole locations. Then I throw it in the vice and blast it with the torch to bend the sides.
My secret weapon for shaving weight this time around was to use aluminum wood screws. These are a bit hard to find and I couldn’t find the exact length I wanted, so I printed this little jig to hold 25 of them at once on a belt sander to trim them down.
For top armor, I went with tegris for two reasons.
- It’s crazy lightweight for how much impact resistance it provides
- It can be shaped to match the curve of the air tanks
Then, all I needed was a Derek Skill Issue sticker for the baseplate and the 10th version of my flipper was ready for battle in Las Cruces, New Mexico!
Quick flipper test. The shoe didn’t stand a chance!
The bot got beat up pretty bad, but I still got 3rd place! I think it’s kind of insane that I was still able to podium with a pneumatic antweight in 2024. I certainly won’t be giving up on this robot anytime soon. Here’s to 10 more versions of The Highlander!
