McMaster Alum Perforated/Expanded Bellypan

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Personally, I don't like either one. You have nowhere to drill and tap any holes and no flat surfaces of any significant area to attach things. I'd say you're better off with a sheet of ABS or something of the sort.

I'd second this. A lot of the purpose of a custom (or not) sheetmetal bellypans are for mounting electronics. However, as you said, you could put screws through with nuts and washers, or even zip ties to hold the electronics down. A more typical (ie, 254/973 style) bellypan is custom waterjeted, with pilot holes which are then drilled out and then tapped to hold the electronics down. Overall, it's less about the strength of the fastener than about it's ease of assembly. We've had success with velcro, for example.

Those sheets look like a reasonable choice, but they obviously don't have many of the advantages of a custom bellypan. You also might look at AndyMark, I believe they stock a bellypan type plate pre-lightened for use with the kitbot chassis.

Finally, custom bellypans all include a border around the outside (where it is mounted to the frame, for example) which is solid metal. Yours would have the lightening pattern all the way up to your cut, which would compromise strength.