It comes with motors and wheels mounted on a frame with four standoffs/spacers and that's it.
I teach programming and electronics, so I'm OK there, but my mechanical skills are pretty lame. I have drawn sketches of the two main brackets I need to mount things. I'm OK with measuring and hole drilling but have tried to bend a bracket 90 degrees and it always looks unprofessional and close but not just right. I remember seeing a sheet metal bender in a sheet metal shop years ago, so I know the right tool can do the job.
One bracket is a simple "L" with drilled mounting holes. Easy except for making a clean 90 degree bend.
My other bracket I call a "J" bracket and it should look like this:
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...so it looks like a J, with two 90 degree bends at the bottom. Bottom width in this side view is 1/2 inch, and I have no idea how to make two nice 90 degree bends, much less that close together.
...and I don't want to pay big bucks for for some metal bender that I might use once every few years.
Is there a tool I can get or a place I can take the already-cut brackets to be bent correctly???
RoboticsProfessor:
$40 is OK for me. I have a Harbor Freight about five miles from me. Hadn't thought of them.
Hadn't thought of them? They should've been your first thought!
Another option - not as pretty but can get the job done (though maybe not strong enough for a fighting bot): Soldering.
As long as it is steel, copper or brass, you can easily solder all three using a small butane torch and acid-core solder; just make sure you sand/file clean the edges/areas where you plan to solder, and keep the edges tight. The next step up from soldering would be brazing, but that takes a bit higher temperature and brazing rods. Of course, the next step up is welding, but that won't easily work with thin-gauge materials (though I've given thought to trying to build a small-scale welder using booster caps as the power source, after seeing some demos Electronic Goldmine did with some such caps they were selling).
You don't say weather you are bending aluminum or steel. You might make your bending tool for the thin materials. The home improvement stores carry inexpensive strips of soft steel lawn edging (4"x~7') that you could cut with a hacksaw to make two bending edges. Clamp your metal to be bent between the two bending edges using a vice, vice grip pliers, or similar, and then bend your metal over the edge. Harbor freight in the past had a similar small bending gizmo for ~$8.
