Re: T-Slot extruded aluminum
 

Team 1208 uses extruded aluminum for our frame and will spend in excess of $800 on frame materials and connectors this year.

Re: T-Slot extruded aluminum
 

A picture is here

Don

Re: T-Slot extruded aluminum
 

Last year we used pretty much all 8020 except for a few machined alumminum plates for various mountings. It works out really nice. However, the T-Nuts (the nice drop in ones) cost about $2 EACH. That was the most expensive thing on our robot I think, lol. This year we tried something different, their Anchor Fastners...they are really strong and form a perfect perpendicular angle (assuming you milled the edge properly). I have to say that being sponsored by Midwest Fluid Power, an 8020 distrubter has its advantages :) One, it's completely FREE...and its a 4 mile drive to their warehouse to pick up pretty much anything we need (1010, 1020, etc) that they have in stock.

Re: T-Slot extruded aluminum
 

Our base drive platform, in a 4 wheel drive configuration, cost less than $20 for the aluminum tube. Add eight 1/4 inch bolts and voila, about the cheapest frame you can get. That puts the basic frame assembly itself at about 8 pounds. Topside, we are using aluminum angle, with some polycarbonate here and there.

We'll probably have $500 to $600 in the structure in the final analysis, but two thirds of that is for pizza or subs during Saturday build sessions. It's taken us a few years to get our priorities right :)