Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
Creform is interesting stuff, Andy. It's technical specs for the standard 28mm pipe indicate 0.3mm (about 1/32") steel wall thickness and 520 g/m (about 0.35 lb/ft) weight. That should provide more than adequate strength. About how much does your pit structure weigh?
I'm guessing (after a quick review of the Creform site and of the McMaster-Carr page you cited) that your team didn't buy the material from McMaster. I base this on the standard pipe lengths that Creform lists, which are 2.5m, 3.0m, and 4.0m. The 3.0m length (~9'10") is just about right for the FRC pit height limit, while the standard McMaster-Carr pipe length is 8' -- a little short if you want to get your signage near the FRC height limit and provide headroom inside your pit.
Did you find a local source for Creform in metric lengths? |
Our whole structure weighs about 40-50 lbs.
The Kokomo Delphi plant has an internal Creform shop with the purpose of making simple structures for assembly lines. There is a UAW skilled tradesman making Creform stuff full-time. We asked him 4-5 years ago to make a pit structure, and this is what he came up with. It was a donation from Delphi that the team still uses.
We hang stuff from the top, like spare parts and materials, along with the team signs. In 2006, at the Championships, we added a strut to one corner and a simple stand in order to hang our
New Year's Eve Ball from one corner. It attracted alot of attention.
Andy B.