Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze
1530 lite verses 1030 That is the trouble with ordering materials in advance due to the slow process at the school district. I had not checked the per foot weight of 1030 verses 1530 before ordering. The lite part not being lite threw me off. Seems odd that although it is a half-inch wider profile that light comes in heavier than the 1030. I suppose I could have gone with 1020. New at this design with 8020 thing, I wasn't certain how much structural strength would be lost by milling slots into the profile for the adjustable front/rear wheels. I now have two 8 foot lengths of the 1530 in the shop so either I don't go with this system this year and keep that around for some beefy vertical members or try and reduce weight on the other components. We still may not be able to go this route as I haven't heard back from the machine shop if they want to be an official team sponsor and help us with this project. Thanks for all the input.  |
The strength lost would be negligible in even a 1020 profile, provided we're talking about something like a 1/2" x 1" slot or so. You could further reduce the effects if you could move the T-nuts from the top of your bracket to the sides so the side walls could carry a bit of the load. Realistically, though, in that profile, any strength you lose there isn't likely to hurt you. We've only used extruded aluminum once for a rather poorly executed robot that we let a sponsor have too much say in... But as I understand it, unless you have a few internal braces, your weak points will inevitably be the joints of your frame. A brace straight across the middle of your robot reduces the moment applied on the joins by 1/2.