[Jon Stratis]

80/20 is great and fairly versatile (we used it our first year). You can get 1" stock and tap the ends for nice joints when making square corners, and the sliders allow you to quickly move things around to find the right place, without needing to drill holes.

All that said, 80/20 is heavy. I mean really heavy. None of the robots we've made since our rookie year could have been made with 80/20 while still being under weight. Last year, I saw team with a bunch of 80/20 on their robot come in 30+ lbs over the weight limit at a pre-ship scrimmage... I believe they made the limit just by replacing that with simple 1" square stock.

You picked the right time to start asking questions... you still have 2.5 months to help your team gain experience! Find your local discount metal supplier and get a bunch of square/rectangular tubing ans sheet metal fairly cheap, then have your team start making things. Build a box. build a book shelf. Get them building stuff, and they'll have a much easier time of it when the build season starts!