[nlknauss]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

I want to counter the point that rivets are not easily removable.

Rivets are VERY easily removable. Obviously care needs to be taken to ensure you are drilling out the rivet and not the hole under the rivet.

For something that will be removed/added many times during a single competition we would opt for screws. For something that needs to be added once or twice per competition, rivets are more than acceptable. The top of our lifter this year is held on by rivets that we will drill out before we leave each competition.



-Brando

Agreed, we use rivets for structures we don't expect to change but often find ourselves easily drilling them to make some changes and reattaching that structure. If we find that the subsystem needs to be removed or adjusted, we use threaded hardware as a part of the design. If we're fastening permanent structure, we look to use rivets.