Page 105 - Robot Builder's Bonanza

74 WORKING WITH WOOD

First cuts

Figure 7-4 For near- circular
Second cuts
bases you can cut off the four
corners of a square base, then trim
off the eight corners you just made.
It’s a little extra effort, but worth it.

cutter to the 3″ mark. You need to also make a starter hole for the jigsaw blade. Position the
hole anywhere along the circumference of the circle.
Seat the anchor point of the cutting jig inside the center hole. Cut out the circle starting from
the center hole you previously made.

Making Cutout Wells for Wheels
The robot bases we’ve cut so far don’t have special cutouts (“wells”) for wheels. Wheel wells
are nice to have, because they allow you to place the wheels flush (or nearly so) with the con-
tours of the body or without having to raise the level of the base to clear the wheels. Figure
7-6 demonstrates the basic idea.
Cutting wheel wells is easier when the wheels are placed at one end of the robot. When in
the middle of the robot you need to make multiple cuts to literally “carve out” the well. Well
cutting works best when you use either a power jigsaw or a coping saw. The coping saw has
a small blade for tight corners.
Figure 7-7 shows a simple three- cut approach. Start with a jigsaw or backsaw and make
two cuts perpendicular to the side of the base.

Figure 7-5 Additional corner cuts
in hexagon and pentagon shapes
make for even sleeker designs.

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