Drum Design

I am new to this forum but have read a lot of stuff on it. Gotta say really helpful info.
Recently I have been trying to design a new drum for my robot next year. I started thinking of different things i could do to make this weapon system as effective as possible. So far i have come up with a ultra light weight large diameter drum barrel with heavy steel teeth, this will allow me to get my angular momentum out as far as possible (which i think is key).

what would give me the best performance as far as high speed or low speed , size, and what weapon motor to use

P.S.
I recently started looking at different websites for parts and I came across Hobby King's website. Is Hobby King's products reliable because the very low prices had me questioning the quality? The way i picked it up is that Hobby King is like the Harbor Freight of robot electronics, the quality isn't great but if you are a person on a budget it all works good

Weight class?
The more weight you have in the drum the more inertia the drum will keep through his so dont put it all in the teeth

Thanks i have 2 years of experience under my belt and i am on the Hempfield bots iq team I have designed the weapon for my team for the past two years, a beater and drum, i liked both designs but doubt their full potential because of what i have seen at the regionals this year. I am not doubting their design but i am trying to figure out how to make them as effective as possible

i am fighting in the fifteen pound weight class. At first i was thinking of going with like a UHMW drum but now that i think about it aluminum might be better

Has anybody heard of Hobby king because i just found them with in the past couple of days and i was unsure of the quality because of their super low prices. my team is on somewhat of a budget and if their parts are descent i might consider using them for future purchases.

so 15 pound robot?
cody is correct the heavier the weapon the more inertia thus a more effective weapon, however there is a trade off of spin up speed. there's tons of different ways to get around the spin up speed so its not that large a concern.

in this thread theres a lot of info about speeds and i strongly suggest you take a look (https://battlebots.forumotion.com/t414-drum-or-beater?highlight=beater)

as for the bigger drum the larger the hit moment = force * distance so you are correct that the farther the contact surface is from the center bar the larger the instantaneous force it generates.

the hobby king stuff is quite good, every now and again you get a sub par motor or something but 98% of the stuff i've bought is still running awesome or i've sold to someone else

so spending a little extra money in the long run on speed controls but using cheap motors is probably my best option because i found a motor that looked semi promising, for a couple of reasons
1. inexpensive
2. descent rpm/ v
3. I don't feel as bad if a motor goes bad

good build report for drums
http://www.teamcosmos.com/solaris/v2/build.shtml

Kyle has had alot of luck with the smaller turnigy motors and some have had good results with the bigger ones.
Like it was said its hit or miss sometimes and just remember you get what you pay for