abandon all hope ye robots who enter
Towering Inferno Image Gallery
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BATTLEBOTS SEASON 5.0 SAN FRANCISCO [MAY 02]
 It's very important to wear clothes that match your robot, should you become separated! [image: iQx2 Behind the Bots 5.0 Screen Show] |
 After losing to powerful horizontal spinner Ripkin in the prelims, Towering Inferno looks to be in pretty good shape [image: Team Poison Fists] |
 But if you look closely, you notice that the titanium yellow arm got so bent that it couldn't rotate anymore [image: Team Poison Fists] |
 New flames & double the fenders |
 The only place in a 2-bedroom apartment to store a 220lb robot... |
 New cart for easier maintenance, transport, & safety, thanks to pit crew boys Nick & Dave |
 New chain guards & sprocket setup--more speed reduction for this build |
 Pods are skinnier & can be adjusted to a wide or narrow stance |
BATTLEBOTS SAN FRANCISCO [MAY 01]
 If only I & the JuggerBoys could hold him like this, he could be a walking bot! [image: Ray Alderman] |
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STEVE JACOB PHOTO SHOOT [MAY 01]
 Brooks Institute of Photograpy student Steve Jacob borrowed Towering Inferno for a day-long photo shoot |
 Far more menacing in Steve's shots than in mine--these are just the quickie polaroids to check the lighting, not the real prints |
 Without a light in the middle, the lexan's nearly invisible--really highlights the wheel fender contours |
 Steve also did the shots for the 4/2001 Independent article. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing prints or having Steve take pictures of your work |
 The finished bot! |
 The new fenders really enhance the aesthetics of the wheel sections |
 Thanks to all of my sponsors who helped out on this bot--without them, it would be see-through |
 The motors are removed here so I could re-mount them more sturdily |
 Funky kaleidoscope shot of the inside of the bot |
 Andy Weinberg machined this female wheel mold, so we could pour & mold urethane directly onto it instead of bonding on strips of tread. The mold & parts were sent to Rodney Sewell at Urethane Rubber Inc., who poured the 1/4" tread at his shop |
 Bottom view of mold. It's laid flat, the spacing is adjusted with 1/4" pins, clamped down, then liquid urethane is poured in & sets up. We've got a great chemical bond and I drilled some connecting holes to add a mechanical interlock--the tread should stick! |
 The 1st sheet metal cone fender mounted up for fit. 6 will eventually go on, reinforcing the wheels, stiffening the rectangular panels, and deflecting blows |
 Closeup shot shows slots & welded tubing behind sheet metal, used to mount fender to wheel with nuts & bolts--additional nuts & bolts will hold the fender to the rectangular panel too |
TBS SUPERSTATION MOVIES FOR GUYS WHO LIKE MOVIES JUDGE DREDD HOSTING [APR 01]
 Towering Inferno after a feisty, messy demonstration outside of Paradise Machining. Owner Warren Johnson didn't mind adding a bunch of holes to his driveway |
 It took a couple of crew guys almost all day to clean the bot & the driveway, and I'm still finding little bits of relish here & there... |
 Unfortunately, I got the best hit on the mayonnaise & not something less gross--ruined my whole outfit on that one shot--we were directly in the line of fire |
 I was disappointed to find that the pinata had no candy in it and that stuffed animals just squish & bounce back when whacked with hammers |
DESIGN NEWS MAGAZINE COVER PHOTO SHOOT [MAR 01]
 Towering Inferno posing for his cover shot for Design News Magazine [photo: Jason Bardis & Kim Kulish] |
 Photographer Kim Kulish gets down for the perfect angle on the shot [photo: Jason Bardis & Kim Kulish] |
 View from floor level [photo: Jason Bardis & Kim Kulish] |
 We had to rig up a double-wide paper background--nobody told Kim how big the bot was, so he assumed it was the size of a breadbox when he packed his gear & showed up! [photo: Jason Bardis & Kim Kulish] |
 Some serious lighting equipment [photo: Jason Bardis & Kim Kulish] |
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 Then we did shots of me running scared. From what? You'll see. Here's a hint of what the cover will look like [photo: Kim Kulish] |
 The final magazine cover! |
 Towering Inferno during his first assembly--wow, he's big! |
 Takes up most of a project table in the UCSB Mechanical Engineering machine shop |
 I painted the hammers different colors so I could distinguish right from left while driving |
 The wheel sections will be reinforced by sheet metal cone sections |
 Seen from end on, it's a triangle in a circle, plus a couple of enormous hammers |
 Hammerheads are easily removed for swapping if necessary |
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 Closeup of drive sprocket, shoulder assembly, and clamp to attach arm to shoulder |
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 The triangle really doesn't extend beyond the circle--this is just a funny perspective |
 Wheel sections with serious lightening holes are bolted to polycarbonate rectangular panels |
 A dozen prism-shaped clamps hold the big prism panels together |
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 Initial polyurethane tread bonded and screwed on, courtesy of sponsor Urethane Rubber Systems in Santa Ana--nice guys! |
 All electronics (battery, radio, speed control, motor) are shock-mounted to outer triangle panels and spaced around to (mostly) balance the wheel |
 The triangle panels of the prisms rotate on hefty bearings that we machined down to save a few pounds--I wish the flanges were red instead of blue... |
 Red anodization gives it that patented Inferno look! |
 One of Bell-Everman's CNC mills, caked with aluminum chips from making Towering Inferno's wheel sections |
 Near-finished part--next step is removing, doing rough bandsaw cut of arc, then re-milling arc completely |
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 These are already bandsawed & awaiting the final finishing pass on the arc portion |
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 The whacking hammers: bricklayer hammerheads on chromoly rectangular tubing arms, reinforced with tool steel inserts |
 Lots of grinding & power sanding turned the blunt claw nice & pointy |
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 Countersunk on both sides for weight savings & for reversability, should they get tweaked |
 I put the large sprockets on a diet |
 Some aluminum braces to provide an internal truss-style structure to the prism sections (I never used these--the structure was already hella strong & stiff as it was) |
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 Closeup of how I snipped the aluminum & then bent & had it welded to get the right shape |
 Initial test piece of the sheet metal cone section to attach to the wheels, courtesy of new sponsor Begneaud Manufacturing. The final ones will have more bends & be smoother. Alan Breaux did the drafting after I described the parts I wanted [photo: Russ Green] |
 The real sheet metal cone pieces, fresh off of the laser cutter at Begneaud, ready for bending and then welding short tube segments on for bolt mounts. Brent "Bubba" Reinhardt did the laser posting & cutting [photo: Russ Green] |
 One of the final pieces right after bending, ready for tubes to be welded on by Don Monac [photo: Russ Green] |
 Depending on the chosen configuration (and weight constraints), Towering Inferno will run with 6 or 12 cone segments. Thanks to Don Begneaud for letting Russ Greene mastermind this project at his shop! [photo: Russ Green] |
PRO/ENGINEER DRAWINGS [EARLY 01]
 Working on Towering Inferno in Pro/Engineer Computer Aided Design software |
 Hey, I learned how to do some basic rendering in Pro/Engineer! |
 All of the major components except the hammerheads are now added |
 Comparison of wheel segment locations: centered or near ends of bot, with different sheet metal cone configurations |
 The final bot will of course have cone sheet metal sections on all parts of the wheels |
 2 pods: hidden lines view |
 2 pods: dimmed hidden lines view |
 2 pods: hidden lines removed from view |
 2 pods: simple rendering |
 Another view of the pair of pods |
 Note the sheet metal cone sections added to 1 wheel section |
 Hidden line view of assembly of 1 pod |
 Shaded view of pod |
 Bracket part--12 of these hold the pods' panels together |
 Early version of the wheel section--3 of these turn each of the structurally strong triangular prisms into circles |
 Motor mount concept that I never ended up needing |
 LEGO prototype model, to see how Towering Inferno handles |
 Requires fancy wheels from the old 8880 Super Car (motor axles pass through the wheels to drive the arms beyond) |
 Motor wires get tangled up after about 3 seconds of driving, but that's long enough to get the idea, sort of... |
 It's ultra-funky to watch the model in action--very manic! |
All content © Jason Dante Bardis and the Infernolab, 1999-2016