The build begins, 10 Sept 2005 After a long break will we built Xi2.0 and competed at Motorama, New Orleans and elsewhere , we have finally got back to this Bot.  The CAD was completed a while  ago and shows the Speed 700 mounted and also has the various UHMW bulkheads for mounting the drive morors and the main power switch. The "Pile of Parts" has grown. I have bought enough tube for a couple of chassis so that we will have at least one spare in case of damage. I got some cheap  Trantorque bushes through the forum and I show a couple of 9.6v Harbor but that may change depending on ESC performance and weight. This new ESC has become available and can take more than 12v so we'll be going up in voltage on the spinner motor, probably to 14.4 or 16.8V I built a jig to be able to hold the tubes securely whilst I cut the 7/8" holes for the Axle tube and the 2.5" cut out in the rear tube. After carefully measuring and marking the position for the axle tube, I used a hole saw to cut the actual openings. The Drill Press head does not have enough travel to  cut all the way through so it was necessery to raise the table to be able to cut the bottom hole. The resulting holes are slightly oversize but not enough to cause a problem. The rear tube was a little tougher to do as you dont have a drilled hole to guide the saw. I locked the drill table up as tight as I could and clamped the jig to the  table. Again the drill travel and limited cutting depth of the hole saw requires some resetting half way through. You must also remove part of the cut tube and wooden jig to allow the cut to go all the way  through. One set of chassis tubes complete. The other is half finished and will get done this weekend. I still need to get some thick wall 1" square tubing to make the motor  mounting out of. This stage of the build went easier than I expected and should result in a neat and strong assembly. The chassis next to CheepShot 3.0 to give an idea of the size. The main tubes are 12" long. Return to main page