[JesseK]

Bleh, the less 80/20 that's used on a bot the lower my blood pressure is. It leaves too much room for last-second decisions that haven't been thought through.

We've used 1/16 wall 1x1" 6061 Aluminum tubing for our frame for 3 years now. It's always been welded. We have students that practice welding on our prototype frames, then they assist the pros who do the welding of the actual frame during build season. From there the frame goes straight to powder-coating at the same sponsor, which also adds strength and rigidity to the frame.

Our drive base frame this year came out to 6.1lbs after powder coating, and had zero CNC work or cheese-holes added to it. In future years we will probably experiment with 1"x1/2" tubing that has a 1/16" wall and sturdy injection foam in order to produce a more compact frame.