Back to the 'Burgh²
My expectations were mixed going into Battle in the Burgh. Although Surgeon could now self right, it had sat unloved in storage for a few months, and I still hadn’t solved the potential chance of getting caught on my own forks. Burgh this year was only a one day event, so with very little on the line, I went along to have a good time.
Liam took a slightly better photo than mine on the day - including the kilt - but it does look like it was taken in 2008!
My first fight was against Doctor Sweep, a Steven King-Clad dustpan wedgebot from Callum Hoy. In this case, it was made from a literal dustpan! He’s posted a build log here. I quickly found I was able to outwedge my opponent’s acetate but didn’t quite have the reach to hit the main body when we met head on. For most of the fight, I managed glancing blows that slowly bent the thin metal body.
INCREDIBLE photography from RBS Media. I mean… Just look at it!
We were separated for an unstick after a particularly meaty hit, but broadly, Callum’s driving was preventing me from getting the opportunity I was looking for… until the dying moments of the match, when I managed to scoop up Doctor Sweep from the rear, and take it to the wall, delivering a final blow that ejected the link.
Hello, Link! Credit: Team Triforce.
There was a nasty scratch left on the dustpan’s lid, but I couldn’t help but wish that the weapon had been more potent, despite the KO win. Watching back Team Triforce’s slowmos suggests to me that the arm may be limiting the weapon’s bite. More on that later.
Fight two was against Sabretooth, an incredibly cool dual spinner melty, with a geared weapon system for synchronised spinning. Coincidentally, it was from the same builder as Brassed Off, an opponent of Barber Surgeon from the previous year. I slapped on the old plough and TPU duck bill, hoping I wouldn’t be flipped.
The one hit - Credit: Team Triforce
It was another KO win for me, but not one I deserved. Unfortunately, Sabretooth was having trouble, and was only running with on spinner. It managed a big hit to start the fight, but struggled to translate afterwards, and eventually died. The heat nuts holding in the front armour on Surgeon had been causing me trouble in previous events, so I had removed them, as there wasn’t really much spaced for a recessed square nut to take it’s place. Unfortunately, that one big hit had wedged the armour awkwardly against the plough and pinned a drive wheel, leaving me unable to pursue the struggling sabretooth, and making for a boring fight. The duck bill also struggled with clearance, and would need redesigning.
I was hoping for a stronger finish for my final fight, against rookie grab-and-lift machine TBD. Craig was a new builder, and the whole bot was printed from very thin, low infill materials, and only one set of the wheels were powered, so I felt decently optimistic about my chances. It was very much a fight of three parts: TBD got stuck early on, high centred on the floor. I took the opportunity to get in a hit, that landed just shy of the link, but when that didn’t free it, I made the decision to push Craig off of whatever part of the floor was high centring him, since I wanted a good fight.
Very close!
The middle of the fight was back-and-forth, but I felt mostly in control. I got in several hits that did very little damage - apart from the one that shattered TBD’s grabbing arm - since the armour was very spongy, but I discovered later that there was incredible internal damage. TBD was still moving though, and Craig got a great drive to pin me in the corner for ten seconds, then used the remains of the lifter to pop me onto my forks. I spent the end of the fight avoiding a count out, firing my weapon to shake myself free, and the match went to the judge with that impression in their minds. A 2:1 split against me came back, though the match was very close. Such a strong resume put me into a top 16 for the very first time…
…against Ray. The little fox-themed lifter was quick, pushy and very well armoured which is kinda Surgeon’s kryptonite. While the omni wheels are especially good for escaping pins and pushes, a hammer saw relies on your driving to get a good shot, and an omni hammer even more so, since it cannot push so well. Ray’s articulated wedge immediately proved the stronger, and they were able to topple me and push me towards the pit corner. Again, I was stuck on my forks, trying to shake myself free, manging to do so just before the pit dropped. I dropped the hammer saw a few times on Ray, and pushed them to the blue corner, but Ray pushed back, and we ended in a nervy standoff on the edge of the pit, where I came off worse. A good fight, and overall, I’m not disappointed, as this was by far Surgeon’s best day at the office. The weaknesses were mostly already known, and some redesigned forks would make it an even stronger prospect.
Teamed with Dave Weston against Articfurno
A teams tournament and a Gladiator followed, and I began to consider my next steps. I chatted to Morgan, especially about how I had been underwhelmed by the potency of my weapon, and how I was considering thicker discs - 5mm over 4mm - as a solution. His response surprised me: Dolos uses 3mm sharpened discs, as a hammer saw is never going to get the same mass in their weapon as a vert, so concentration what you do have into a small point, since you can choose the engagement, had been his solution. That said, a hubmotor added significant weapon mass, and gave me a broken magnet ring casing to study. Buoyed by this understanding, I went into CAD and began work, first on Crossblow, and then on a Barber Surgeon 4…
Where are they now?
Barber one was stuffed and mounted after being stripped for parts. When I printed new wheel cores, the old injection-moulded cores were easily glued together and added back to the chassis. You can see it in the Barber Surgeon 2 assembly pics.
Barber 2 itself sat on the shelf for a while until Anthony reached out about Crossblow. A short time later I sent him the robot’s shell with any remaining spare prints and some TPU wheel cores. It no competes at Mecha Mayhem with a Scythe hammer head.
Darkest Ireland’s Home for Retired Robots.
As for Barber Surg3on, it’s still assembled and ready to go, aside from some minor parts pinching to measure up for the Barber 4 CAD. I redesigned the forks on Jed’s recent metal order, so it should be good to go for whiteboards until I build it’s successor. I don’t, at present, plan for it to compete again, though there’s still plenty of life left in the chassis.
And that brings us up to date. Tune in next time for the big reveal of where Barber Surgeon goes next…