Use of pop-rivets?
 

Hey, guys. Just wondering how many of your teams out there use pop rivets extensively (or at all) Looking at other bots, i noticed other teams dont use them nearly as much as we do. Just seeing what everyone else does, im not build team, so im not really involved with why we do what we do in some regards.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

We really only use them on IFI wheels. Other than that, we really don't. We've found that replacing a rivet takes longer than a bolt, and rivets aren't quite as forgiving when replacing.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

I know a few people who will argue you to the death on that one.

If you want to see rivets, check out a 1501,217,148,33 machine

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

We like to use them with sheet metal and lexan portions of our robot. It's easy to drill them out if we need to replace the hardware. As you know, they're quick and easy to install and rivets won't rattle loose like screws do.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

We use lots of rivets, as we do a lot with sheet metal. Lots.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

We used pop rivets this year for our wheel mounts, and they worked fine for us.

Edit: The mounts were bolted on, we riveted additional supports on

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

Sorry I should have elaborated. My team uses 1/16" thick 1"x1" aluminum tubing in most of our applications (we haven't quite reached a point where we use sheet metal). Our style of robot building works well with bolts, and I don't really see us changing (unless we start using sheet metal more extensively).

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

They're really useful for little things like spacers, lexan, etc.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

In the past two years the only reason we've used pop rivets for is to rivet strips of wegetop to aluminum tube, to make rollers

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

We didn't use rivets much this year, but that was almost our entire hardware for Lunacy. Our robot that year was pretty much just 1/8" and 1/16" stock metals (angle, tube, etc.) and they work really well. Replacing them (which we rarely had to do) was pretty quick and easy.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

My old team used them in 2009 for mounting our bumpers and to build a camera mount/Lexan cover support. You can see them here, in the CAD model from that year.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

My team uses rivets almost exclusively on our robot. I can't think of any system on the 'bot in which you wouldn't find a single rivet.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

This year we did not have a lot as we used 80-20 which required special fasteners, but in previous years they were used in most of the robot. They are nice because they are light, but use too many of a large size and you might as well use a bolt and they need to be drilled out. Overall they are better than bolts and highly recommend them on most parts unless you want a strong connection that will not break and stay in place under extreme forces.

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

What kind of spacer would you secure with a rivet?

Re: Use of pop-rivets?
 

We use pop rivets of varying sizes everywhere. Only items which must use a bolt (such as an axle) get screw threads, everything else is a rivet.