[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Drew Hopman

Except ours is metal, yours is wood. I would hate to see how much overweight you all are, considering that in that picture we weighed somewhere around 145 lbs not including batt. With everything now we are right around 118lbs.

Why do the utes in FIRST all seem to assume that (Wood == Heavy)? This is not true. One of these years I swear I'm going to build a robot that is all wood except for the essential mechanical bits. Pound for pound, cvg Douglas fir, for example, is stiffer than aluminum, and has better strength in compression and sheer. Aluminum wins for better impact resistance, and possibly strength in tension. The mistake would be to make a wooden robot just like you would make an aluminum one. The design and building method has to be tailored to the strengths of the material you choose.