Chaos 2 - Construction & Testing of New Rams.

New Rams.

After 2 years of sterling service, the main lift rams (kindly made by Rex) have worn out.
So we've decided to replace them by making new improved rams which will have a larger
diameter for even more throwing power!. They will also be easy to dismantle, so we can
replace things like the seals when necessary (to keep the weapon in tip top condition).


Ian working away on his lathe...	...and the resulting new parts.

Trial assembly of the first new ram . . .

The finished articles.

(Shown here with one
of the old rams for
comparison).

Next job,strip out the
old rams... Looks a
bit empty in there...

Building it back up...
...first the new rams

Then the tricky part,
making new stainless
plates, (and getting all
the holes to line up!).

Connect up the pipes,
move the odd wire, and
we're ready to go!...

Ahh . . . Initial testing wasn't quite as good as we expected. (thats a car tyre above the garage door.)

While we've got more lift, we've lost speed, so we can't chuck things quite as well. There are several possible reasons for this, which we will now have to investigate. Things like friction of the seals, or gas flow rate through the valves is obviously taking the edge off the performance.

The other thing to consider is the temperature of the gas. CO2 vapour pressure is dependant on temperature, and we don't normally run the robot in such cold weather.

Thats Better! . . .

I make that about 12 feet!... and it's on gas, not liquid, so we might get even more flips as well.

It all comes down to flow. We've rigged up some temporary bigger bore pipework, seems to have done the trick!

We also took out one of the O rings to help reduce the friction in the rams.

Back to Rebuild Page

Last Updated : 08/03/01.