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Step 6Construction of manufactured parts
Depending on how much design and your resources you can start building parts. There are many ways to do things, hand tools (jigsaw, hammer, etc), Manual mill lathe, full cnc; Which ever method you choose Make sure you are Safe.
If you are building a budget robot you will most likely be using hand tools or light power tools. This is the method used by more bots than anything else. The only advise that I can offer for doing this is to take your time and use the templates or CAD drawings you created to help in the process. One of my preferred methods for this when I am unable to use the machine shop is to make drawings from CAD in a full scale and paste them to the material then use those guides to cut your parts.
The next step up from manual tools is a standard machine shop. If you have access to a Mil or a lathe you will be able to create highly accurate parts. These tools can be very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing so make sure supervision or proper instruction happens before you start. If you are looking for access to a machine shops most towns and citys have them and you should be able to open a phone book and find someone to help. Sometimes they are willing to donate their time other times you will need to pay for their time. At this day in age there are some great resources online for manufacturing which can help you out. http://www.emachineshop.com/ and www.cncbotparts.com both are great sources.
Advanced manufacturing can come into play for many complex robots. For my past few robots I have been fortunate to have access to CNC (computer numeric controlled) and waterjet for my bot parts. This makes building the components very easy but it makes the CAD design even more crucial for accuracy, as any machine shop will build EXACTLY what you give them. If you are going down this road make sure you take the extra steps to ensure that your design is right. I would even go as far to find someone else who knows CAD to review your designs to make sure you have not overlooked something.
If you are building a budget robot you will most likely be using hand tools or light power tools. This is the method used by more bots than anything else. The only advise that I can offer for doing this is to take your time and use the templates or CAD drawings you created to help in the process. One of my preferred methods for this when I am unable to use the machine shop is to make drawings from CAD in a full scale and paste them to the material then use those guides to cut your parts.
The next step up from manual tools is a standard machine shop. If you have access to a Mil or a lathe you will be able to create highly accurate parts. These tools can be very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing so make sure supervision or proper instruction happens before you start. If you are looking for access to a machine shops most towns and citys have them and you should be able to open a phone book and find someone to help. Sometimes they are willing to donate their time other times you will need to pay for their time. At this day in age there are some great resources online for manufacturing which can help you out. http://www.emachineshop.com/ and www.cncbotparts.com both are great sources.
Advanced manufacturing can come into play for many complex robots. For my past few robots I have been fortunate to have access to CNC (computer numeric controlled) and waterjet for my bot parts. This makes building the components very easy but it makes the CAD design even more crucial for accuracy, as any machine shop will build EXACTLY what you give them. If you are going down this road make sure you take the extra steps to ensure that your design is right. I would even go as far to find someone else who knows CAD to review your designs to make sure you have not overlooked something.
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