Well, Tier competed at Motorama, but unfortunately without a weapon. The night before we left, I ruined the weapon bearings while trying to hammer them onto the shaft. Now that I no longer have an immediate deadline, I can take my time finishing and make some upgrades.
 A pic of the bots after coming back from Motorama, sitting in my room. Tier is rather beat up, although it's not very noticable in this pic.
 Here's Tier's complete weapon system laying on the floor after I took it out for Motorama. I would have kept it in the bot for ballast, but at almost $600 total, it would have been expensive ballast to get damaged...
 The Team Tier hall of fame (or shame). - Where all my bots go after they become 'obsolete'. Can you name them all?? I know I can. :-)
 Anyway, here I'm starting to tear down Tier after Motorama. As you can see, the only trace of the weapon that I left in for the event was the pillow blocks. Mainly because I was planning on replacing them anyway.
 Here's all the electronics I had in the bot for the event. All of it is going to be replaced for lighter parts in the new version. The Blasts for BL Racers; The 7 Channel Rx for a Fury; and the 6v Radio Shack Battery for a 7.2v n500-ar pack.
 Here's the frame without the electronics, and now the damage from 30lbs of Hate is more obvious.
The damage wasn't crippling, but it left the 6061 baseplate severely warped in some places and put some big cuts in the Lexan. Here's some more pics...
 This is the weapon shaft, looking nice and pretty. As you can see, I replaced the ball bearings with bushings. These are a lot harder to break when trying to get them on the shaft, as I'm apt to do with ball bearings.
 This is a piece of UHMW U channel I bought from McMaster to make new pillow blocks out of. I'm hoping they'll be sturdier than the old ones because of their wider base.
 Et voila, the new pillow blocks with bushings installed. The hole for the bushings was slightly too big, so I installed screws and washers to hold them in place.
 Now finally the weapon shaft is installed for the first time. It's a little tight, but once the shaft gets a few thousand RPMs on it, the bearings should auto-lubricate... or something like that..
 These are the BL Racers that Sam sold me to replace the old Blasts. They're almost half the weight, but give the same features. Even a reverse delay!
 Here's Tier reassembled with the complete weapon system for the first time. Now just a few things left missing...
 The first thing left to do is make the top 'armor'. Since it's 1/16" Lexan, it can barely be called armor... more like a 'hold the guts in' piece...
 Here's the top, almost finished. I still have 4 more holes left to mill in it... 2 for the weapon drive belts and 2 for access to the wires in back, but I prefer procrastinating. You can see the top bulges up in the middle behind the weapon. That's because the battery pack is actually over 2" tall. No one warns me about these things...
 Another thing I wanted to fix was the pulleys on the weapon shaft. Since McMaster didn't sell them with a 1/2" bore, I had originally drilled them out myself with a 1/2" drill bit. This worked for a quick fix when I had had a deadline for Motorama, but now that I have time, I bought two new pulleys and sent them to CNC Botparts to have them bored out on a lathe. much nicer.
 Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: a new 7.2v n500-ar pack from Batteries America. Sam sent me one to use for HTGV, and I liked it so much that I bought another one for Tier.
 With nothing left to do, and only a few days left before the 12 Pounds of Pain competition, I was forced to stop procrastinating and finally finished milling the top armor... (ooOOOoh... action shot!)
 ..And the finished Product, sitting on my pit table at 12POP. It ended up going 0-2, but at least it looked good doing it...
 Here's the remains of an old bubblejet printer that Tier had a little fun with the night before 12POP. Unfortunately, this was the only thing Tier ever got close to destroying.
 Now Tier is the newest submission to the Team Tier hall of Fame... (Although I believe Tier belongs in the Hall of Shame).
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A pic of the bots after coming back from Motorama, sitting in my room. Tier is rather beat up, although it's not very noticable in this pic.
Here's Tier's complete weapon system laying on the floor after I took it out for Motorama. I would have kept it in the bot for ballast, but at almost $600 total, it would have been expensive ballast to get damaged...
The Team Tier hall of fame (or shame). - Where all my bots go after they become 'obsolete'. Can you name them all?? I know I can. :-)
Anyway, here I'm starting to tear down Tier after Motorama. As you can see, the only trace of the weapon that I left in for the event was the pillow blocks. Mainly because I was planning on replacing them anyway.
Here's all the electronics I had in the bot for the event. All of it is going to be replaced for lighter parts in the new version. The Blasts for BL Racers; The 7 Channel Rx for a Fury; and the 6v Radio Shack Battery for a 7.2v n500-ar pack.
Here's the frame without the electronics, and now the damage from 30lbs of Hate is more obvious.
This is the weapon shaft, looking nice and pretty. As you can see, I replaced the ball bearings with bushings. These are a lot harder to break when trying to get them on the shaft, as I'm apt to do with ball bearings.
This is a piece of UHMW U channel I bought from McMaster to make new pillow blocks out of. I'm hoping they'll be sturdier than the old ones because of their wider base.
Et voila, the new pillow blocks with bushings installed. The hole for the bushings was slightly too big, so I installed screws and washers to hold them in place.
Now finally the weapon shaft is installed for the first time. It's a little tight, but once the shaft gets a few thousand RPMs on it, the bearings should auto-lubricate... or something like that..
These are the BL Racers that Sam sold me to replace the old Blasts. They're almost half the weight, but give the same features. Even a reverse delay!
Here's Tier reassembled with the complete weapon system for the first time. Now just a few things left missing...
The first thing left to do is make the top 'armor'. Since it's 1/16" Lexan, it can barely be called armor... more like a 'hold the guts in' piece...
Here's the top, almost finished. I still have 4 more holes left to mill in it... 2 for the weapon drive belts and 2 for access to the wires in back, but I prefer procrastinating. You can see the top bulges up in the middle behind the weapon. That's because the battery pack is actually over 2" tall. No one warns me about these things...
Another thing I wanted to fix was the pulleys on the weapon shaft. Since McMaster didn't sell them with a 1/2" bore, I had originally drilled them out myself with a 1/2" drill bit. This worked for a quick fix when I had had a deadline for Motorama, but now that I have time, I bought two new pulleys and sent them to CNC Botparts to have them bored out on a lathe. much nicer.
Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: a new 7.2v n500-ar pack from Batteries America. Sam sent me one to use for HTGV, and I liked it so much that I bought another one for Tier.
With nothing left to do, and only a few days left before the 12 Pounds of Pain competition, I was forced to stop procrastinating and finally finished milling the top armor... (ooOOOoh... action shot!)
..And the finished Product, sitting on my pit table at 12POP. It ended up going 0-2, but at least it looked good doing it...
Here's the remains of an old bubblejet printer that Tier had a little fun with the night before 12POP. Unfortunately, this was the only thing Tier ever got close to destroying.
Now Tier is the newest submission to the Team Tier hall of Fame... (Although I believe Tier belongs in the Hall of Shame).
