Quote:
Originally Posted by slijin
I'll never be as confident in a wooden one as an aluminum one (we've experienced too much chassis damage and warping for me to be comfortable with wood), but that's just me.
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I see several posts here from my fellow long-time "wood evangelists" here on CD. I'd be happy to put our
baltic birch breakaway 'bot up against pretty much any aluminum frame and see which one comes away damaged and warped. We've built aluminum frames for years, but we've never built one as stiff and sturdy as this 100% wooden one.
Wood has turned out to be a very appropriate material for students to use, for many of the reasons listed above... and you don't need a laser cutter to do a nice job of it. Although we do have a CNC router, which makes some tasks easier, the majority of our construction is carred out using traditional wood shop power tools. Check out
the guts of the machine here, and you'll see that there are
no fancy joinery, tabs, or epoxy... just a bit of carpenter's glue and some screws. Our practice bot didn't even have the carpenter's glue... it was just screwed together, and held up just fine (although it was considerably weaker than the glued competition frame). On a related note, I'd question the need to use epoxy... my lab tests confirm these made by Fine Woodworking Magazine, that
standard white or yellow PVA glue actually outperforms epoxy as an adhesive for wooden joints. Not to mention it is cheaper, easier to clean, and much less messy to work with. The only time we use epoxy is for the occasional quick repair at an event. (Hmm... another advantage of wood... no trips to the machine shop.)
I am really surprised that you got a negative reaction to a wooden frame. We've received outstandingly positive reactions to our use of wood since we used it for our
"unbreakable" three pound arm in 2005. I have to say that a
clear coat of laquer (with perhaps
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/32608) gives it that finishing touch. We've had our use of wood cited as a contributing factor in three design awards and one judge's award over the course of six years at three different events.
Even when we don't do the whole chassis or frame or drive module out of wood, we still made it a prominent part of our
lifts and
mechanisms. We are very proud of our use of wood, and recognize that their will be "doubters". That's why when we built our three pound arm, we brought along a spare for the judges to JUMP ON. That was a key to our very first FRC award, and the beginning of our team's minor reputation for using wood.
Equally significant from the point of view of myself and the other mentors is the outstandingly positive feedback that we have received from other teams, and the knowledge that we have inspired others to consider using a biodegradable, low cost, environmentally-friendly material as part of their design. It is especially cool to see that now that our team is no longer around that others are doing an even more impressive job of creating wooden wonders. Check out
1899's arm if it had been clear-coated instead of painted it might have been the single most beautiful arm I've ever seen at an FRC event. (It's still up there, though... I just like to see the grain.)
Wood is good. Go for it!
Jason