Now that you have your template, you can clamp it
onto your sheet material and use the template as a guide to
drill all of your holes. This method can be used for a variety
of situations. I have used it for mounting gearboxes to a
base plate, along with mounting base plates to frames.
Printed Templates
Oftentimes, you need to cut out a complicated part or
drill a complicated hole pattern in situations where the
previous trick wouldn’t work. For situations like this, office
supply stores carry a very technologically advanced and
useful product: sticker paper. (Okay, so it’s not that
advanced, but it is very useful!) Simply buy a pack of the
full sheet sticker paper, print out your template on it, and
stick it to your material. When you print out your template,
be sure it is scaled as 1:1. You can check this by measuring
some known dimensions on it after printing it out. Also,
mark all hole locations with a set of cross hairs or an X. You
can then use a center punch to accurately dimple where
each hole needs to go.
In Review
With the final design completed, we’ve been able to
take a look at some of the tools and techniques that will be
useful in building a robot. We explored cutting, drilling,
tapping, and welding. You should now have enough
knowledge to begin drilling and tapping. You also know a
little bit more about cutting and welding so that you can
choose a method and learn even more! We discussed a few
of my favorite tricks of the trade, which should help to
make your future builds easier. Next month — in the final
segment of this series — we will be going through the
entire build process of our designed robot using our newly
acquired knowledge! For more information on myself and
my robots, visit www.robotic-hobbies.com. SV
FIGURE 8. After you have drilled all of your holes, you will
have a Lexan template with the exact hole pattern as the part.
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SERVO 05.2008 41
