where do u buy materials for your robot chassis

[superchiku]

To me the most troublesome part of making a robot is the chassis construction..

I would like to know the best online stores to buy robot chassis materials and where do u people get ur materials cut out drilled and given shape ??

[Steve Joblin]

I actually think it is one of the easiest things to acquire as materials abound in the ever-popular Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, Sears Hardware, Wall Mart, K-Mart, Target, etc... just start walking up and down the isles and let your imagination go free... hey, see those metal fastening plates over there... check out these small plastic containers, hey, what's this thing in the plumbing section... wonder if this will work, a tin box for photographs... now there's an idea... wait, what's this over here... I think it will be perfect!  looks like a....

[airman00]

yea metal mending plates are cheap and awesome for robots

[izua]

try pololu.com.
the have various stuff, but nothing beats custom.

[superchiku]

ya ths the problem any more places?

[TrickyNekro]

I don't know for robot chassis but car window motors are very good for a medium  to large robots...

For chassis... anything man... anything... depending on what you already have...
maybe an old toy... carbon fiber plate... and so on...

these can be found in homebuilding material stores and such... even at car upgrading stores (the carbon fiber we were talking about...)

and such...
Usually messing around your city and you can find plenty...

Cheers,
Lefteris

[superchiku]

isnt recyling a good option , i recycled some wood from an old broken window , cut it coloured it and put some stickers, also i try to use everything off the self , but for certain things like plexi glass, plastic and all u have to look around so needed place to buy them and yes car stores and hardware stores are good options but i dont think they keep hdfe or plexi glass??

[TrickyNekro]

Car stores may have carbon fiber... And I don't mean car stores where you buy a car...
But Car stores for tuning up your machine etc... carbon is an option for many parts like hoods, body, and spoilers and other...

Having a look doesn't really hurt any way...


Lefteris

[superchiku]

ya u are right but getting those cut into size will be difficult and they will also be costly not good if u have a tight budget

[bukowski]

I love scavenging. I had an old LCD monitor that gave up the ghost, and I got all kinds of goodies from it. Just on the materials side, there was 2 different thicknesses of high grade plastic, a wierd plastic lens material (really wierd stuff.. it magnafies and gives the 90 degree perspective no matter what angle you look at it.), some light weight perforated steel, and a bunch of wire.
Another thing that I found is just to pick up a industrial parts catalog (mcmaster carr, etc) and flip through it. Let your imagination wander and you can find all kinds of interesting things, not just from the raw materials section.

[superchiku]

ya ur imagination can really make the best out of wild things but sometimes u need to buy and thats where all the problem arises

[awally88]

On the mention of computer screens, don't pull apart crt computer screens as you might get a bit of a shock! They store quite a lot of voltage in them which can zap you if you try pulling them apart!

[c02cutter]

http://www.mcmaster.com/

They have about everything

[MangoBot]

home depot is the best for stuff, also any peoples junk is good, watch boxes, cardboard. at home depot you can go lexan, or wood, or pvc, or pipe pretty much anything. Foam for a boat robot.