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Originally Posted by jimfortytwo
High quality plywood is a great material to seriously consider, especially if metal fabrication is a difficulty for you. One of the great things about plywood is that it doesn't dent-- give it a hard jar and it will spring back every time. Often the plywood comes out of the season in better condition than the 1/8" wall aluminum box beams. I must admit though, for "shiny factor" our team is considering moving into a different material for next season.
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I agree with you about the effectiveness of plywood.
We used plywood for the bottom of the inside of our chassis for the past two years. Our first year's robot is constructed completely out of plywood.
Plywood is good for two reasons: it absorbs shock well w/o denting and is lightweight -- lighter than lexan or aluminum of the same thickness. Plywood is also a common and inexpensive material, compared to lexan and aluminum extrusion. Plywood provides a good mounting surface too.
As for the "shiny factor", plywood is easy to paint and decorate on a low budget

Have any artists on your team? You can make this stuff look good.
We have used a variety of aluminum frame materials. This year's robot used the hollow aluminum beams that came in the kit. We drilled holes (but not to many to make it too weak) to take weight out of the frame. These worked very well. No dents or anything.