High Steaks Deep Dive

Have you ever thought of a terrible pun? Has that terrible pun resulted in dozens of hours of work to transform it into a tangible object?

Big wheeled bots aren’t new. Bots like Huge, Gabriel, Starchild, and plenty of others have been out there fighting for years and are inspiring new designs all the time. While thinking about the pros and cons of this style of bot the thought came up: What would happen if Team Food Fight built a big wheel style bot? While I can’t say what the bot would look like, a name immediately came to mind.

With that pun, the CAD effort began and Hotkoin was contacted for the logo you see above.

So, what are the goals of High Steaks?

  • Re-use the hubmotor and electronics from M-80
  • Test viability of PLA+ for semi-protected structural elements in a 3lb bot
  • Test segmented cleats as a means of increasing grip and adding structural stability to UHMW wheels
  • Lean hard into the theme

With those goals the parts list and profile started taking shape. High Steaks would recycle the drive and weapon esc’s from M-80 along with the hubmotor. Some left over FingerTech Mega Sparks would be the drive solution with an extra 2:1 reduction to the wheels.

Cleated UHMW Wheels
Welded 4130 Chassis Being Tempered
12lber For Scale

If you’re gonna go all in on a steak theme, you can’t be generic on your weapon disk. This lead to the question of just how steak-like a disk can be made to look. After some digging around I settled on two base colors and the Montana Cans white marble effect paint.

This Was a Very Clean Process
Raw and Ruined

With the electronics pulled mostly from an existing bot the wiring process was fast with the main challenge being routing wires between the two halves of the chassis. The rear channel was snug, but it wasn’t too difficult to pull the wires through with the assistance of some forceps and a bit of patience.

  • Electronics Overview
  • Power Switch with TPU Mounting Spacer

Thanks go out to SendCutSend for making the weapon disks, steel chassis components, and spring steel cleats. The UHMW wheels and carbon fiber armor panels were made by CNCMadness.

  • Top View
  • Bottom View
  • I Swear It’s Not On Fire
  • Weapon Lock On Theme

With all the pre-event goals met that leaves the final question: How did it do?

Overall I’m very happy with the performance. The one serious design issue that popped up didn’t really impact the results, but with the width of the tips on the side forks it would require the axle to be removed to replace a wheel, which isn’t ideal if there’s a time crunch. Because of that some new side forks have been designed that keep the aesthetic while allowing the hex bore on the wheels to slip over them for easy replacement. Beyond that, some extra UHMW wheels and cleats have been made to ensure enough spares are on hand and that there’s a heavier duty wheel option for bots where wheel damage is particularly likely.