2008 Rebuild

"Surgical Strike" and its near twin "Blunt Instument" had a great event at Motorama this year going 1st and 3rd respectively but you can't stand still for long in this sport and expect to stay competitive. With this in mind I decided to rebuild "Surgical Strike" so that it could take a 6S Lipo Battery Pack, a longer 17.5" Blade and house the weapons ESC inside the top tube rather than perched on top as before.

The new chassis in the welding Jig

The new blade beside the existing ones.

The old and the new chassis side by side.

A puller I made to safely remove the pulleys from the motors

Navy blue dye plus UHMW equals.......

Surgical strike as rebuilt for the Franklin Institute 2008 Event.  

It was certainly the prettiest version of Surgical Strike but not the most effective. The new top tube proved to be too thin and buckled at the weapon axle mounting.  The new blade too was a failure, its 6061 Aluminium bent with the first good hit.  I'll make another, one day, but this time in the more expensive, but much tougher 7075.