Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
OTOH, I've been around FRC for a similar length of time, and my teams have welded an awful lot of things. Drive frames come to mind right away (both 330 and 1197 prefer custom drive frames); arms or towers for arms, shooter structures, ramp frames... This last season, 1197 welded intakes and the ball carrier/shooter structure as well as the drivebase. (A couple of other teams, however, did not have welding resources. Enter the bolts and other creative methods of holding metal together.)
YMMV, as you can tell.
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Don't get me wrong, welding is certainly a valid method of robot construction. My point was that it's possible to get around it with alternatives (bolts, rivets, etc), where it's harder to get the results of a lathe's output with something other than a lathe (ditto mills).
I'd also second sanddrag's suggestion on an arbor press and broaches. 4901 didn't have to broach anything I can think of this year, but 2815 used the heck out of a 1/2" hex broach in years past. Very easy to make roller assemblies with one--broach your rollers, then round the hex off the ends and tuck it into bronze bushings. (Or leave the hex on and put hex bearings in, but the bushings are usually cheaper and more compact if you can live with a little more friction. And generally, I've found you can.)
If you do get a pneumatic riveter, don't chuck your handheld ones. The one 2815 had was a little...portly at times, making it harder to reach into certain areas of the robot.