So here's my guide on strengthening the chassis. I did this due to the fact i broke part of it myself just bashing it. So rather than just buying a new chassis i decided to fix and improve the strength!
This is what happened..
As you can see the little plastic wall between the battery tray and the servo tray snapped, causing the battery to move in to the servo causing the servo to break too
To fix this problem you will need to do some plastic welding. And to do this you will need:
Soldering Iron
Open space with plenty of ventilation as you'll be burning plastic!
Some hard plastic(I used the cover on my scientific calculator which i never use, due to it being extremely strong plastic)
And a steady eye and patience!
- Start off by giving the area a good scrubbing with soapy water just to get rid of any nasty bits there. Let it dry.
- When that's clean get your soldering iron nice and hot.
- Try and hold up the plastic that's broken off, fortunately mine slotted in and i could use both hands. However hold it in place, get your soldering iron and start melting the 2 edges together. You want to keep a nice smooth motion going, don't stay in one area for too long or else it will burn through the plastic!
- Once you've plastic welded one side, you need to do the other side. So turn it round and start doing the same again. Not too hard is it? Almost like glueing..
- Now that it's together looks pretty neat, give it a minute or so to cool down. Then you can start putting a little pressure on it to see how well your joint is.
- When you've done it well enough grab your piece of hard plastic. What you want is a rectangular shaped piece that slots behind the part you've just plastic welded. Here's a picture of the final piece so you can see what i mean.
Here you can see the grey plastic i have plastic welded to the chassis to provide a) More strength which in turn will provide less chance of breaking again.
- Make sure you put this thin but strong piece of plastic on the battery side, as you won't be able to fit your servo in if you put it in the servo tray. As you can see the above picture looks very messy this is just due to the fact i havn't tidied it up and filed down the excess plastic.
This is very easy to do and will only take you 15 minutes maximum but i have already noticed a massive impact on strength on this area that crucially has cost me