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Re: Alternatives to Welding?
we looked at many solutions for our tube and gusset frame before deciding on rivets. we used 1 by 1 by 1/8 tube with rivets and loved it. we considered bolts, but decided against them because they weighed much more, and also because we wanted the frame to stay absolutely perfectly square once it was put together. large holes tend to have more slop than small holes (at least in our shop) we decided against screws because we didn't want to tap. our 2010 robot had 700 machine screws, and that was something we didn't want to repeat. pop rivets were suggested by one of our mentors and they were excellent. they are easy to drill out if you want to change something, and they are very strong. i think our frame weighed 28lbs. (heavy, but part of the lift support was included and as our first year with tubes and gussets it was way way tougher than needed) i would recommend rivets for sure.
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