I might also want to mention that we also used rivets on our mechanisms this year, and we did have several shake loose. These were mostly in the high stress points in our launching mechanism and lifting mechanism (which took a severe beating). They were all easy to replace, but it took us a couple of attempts to realize that if the plates aren't clamped together very well when you rivet them, they will shake loose again in no time.
All the rivets in the frame stayed tight all season though!
(a mild escapade off topic)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Nawrot
The one issue we ran into with it (apart from the constant irritation of the fiberglass dust), was the fibrous nature of the material. Since fiberglass is a series of glass fibers held together by an epoxy, drilling holes in the material leaves exposed fiber ends, allowing the material to be pulled apart.
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This is interesting, where did you get your fiberglass from? The stuff we use drills and cuts very cleanly, and I've never experienced any irritation from it (though I think some team members found it to be itchy). We get ours from creative pultrusions,
http://www.creativepultrusions.com/ )