Saturday 28 March 2015

ROBOT WARS

A bit of side project stuff, my university course entailed building a fighting robot much like those used in the television show. Our weight limit was 13kg however which explains the small size, but below is a series of pictures with some short captions.

Top view of robot without the outer shell/reinforcement

The running gear laid out in exploded style. 4 motors and 4 batteries for AWD, with the mounting plate in the centre.

Our robot (the black cuboid shaped one) being flipped by Robot Wars' very own Bigger Brother!


Mini head gasket

After much abuse on motorways, the Mini finally gave in and blew a head gasket. You might notice a *tiny* bit of damage to the bottom 2 cylinder gasket rings...

With the need to drive the mini back to university the next day work began in the afternoon and went on until the small hours of the morning. At around mid night the engine was looking like this:

At 2am the engine was back together with help from Angus who found a new skill in cleaning cylinder heads with a cement trowel (for lack of a better tool).

The next day I drove the car to Brighton without a problem. It needs a good tune now after the gasket has settled and that will happen within the next week.

TR4A brakes

The TR4A is seeing some much needed brake improvements; New brake pipes, master cylinder, calipers, and drum cylinders and pads are all in progress. Below is a picture of the new caliper (after finding some scoring in one of the old calipers it was decided to purchase new ones for the front. The rear seem in good condition though)


(Note to self: Stop letting dad paint everything with red Hammerite)