[roboticWanderor]

Heh, okay guys, long time no see. But, since you brought up wood coast, I gotta speak, seeing as how we just about finished up building our own wooden robot prototype!

Oak is pretty much the best wood for a drive train, other woods compress and mar to easily to do any live axle though holes like you got here. bearings are under a lot of pressure, and they will wallow out of any softer woods.

To join the chassis together, it is recommended to use a type of cabinet or other type of joinery, these method range from the complex to the simple, and usually involve some combination of cuts, wood pins, screws, and glue, hardly any bolts. We used mortise and tenon (spelling??) joinery on the cross beams on our wood drive train and it holds up great.

the fiberglass seems to be unnecessary, wooden cross supports would work just as well with less bulk. I also think you got a little thicker wood on the side rails than you need. On ours were no thicker than 1.5 inches, and about 3 inches high, and PLENTY strong. I am sure with a little more work, you could easily cut the chassis down to about 20 lbs total.