Building the Structure of the Robot?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

I also think 973 does this well. Also one thing to point out for lower resource teams is that if you get the gussets cut accurately(with a waterjet sponsor namely, which are really easy to find) you can match drill your whole robot frame

Yes, our entire 2012 robot (and various parts of older robots) were held together with gussets, not welding.

We made our own cnc router, so the ability to cut arbitrary gussets in house on zero notice was helpful.

Your suggestion of having a sponsor cut gussets is totally valid, a waterjet or laser will fly through 1/16" plate.

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Yes, our entire 2012 robot (and various parts of older robots) were held together with gussets, not welding.

We made our own cnc router, so the ability to cut arbitrary gussets in house on zero notice was helpful.

Your suggestion of having a sponsor cut gussets is totally valid, a waterjet or laser will fly through 1/16" plate.

Just to add in, even if you don't have a waterjetting/CNC/laser cutting sponsor, you still can do the work yourself at a local hackerspace. We're planning on cutting our gussets and bellypan with a hackerspace's waterjet, rather than milling them in our own shop (which took forever).

In our experience, gussets are a great way to save weight (because you can use thinner wall tubing), but rigidity is compromised. I'm hoping to in house weld our drive base again for the sake of rigidity, but I'd concider doing riveted gussets on our superstructure again, even though our tower was a but wobbly last year.

As a final note, don't have freshman make all your frame pieces in a drill press and expect all the holes to line up. Take the time to CNC the frame members, to have experienced members do the drilling, or be prepared to have these same freshmen do a lot of filling...

[Mk.32]

We recently switched over to a box tube + gusset bolt together construction method: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/38147

It's a great way to put together a stiff and strong frame that is also light, our entire frame was under 20lbs.
Using rivets instead of bolts will help a lot with weight as well.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

We recently switched over to a box tube + gusset bolt together construction method: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/38147

It's a great way to put together a stiff and strong frame that is also light, our entire frame was under 20lbs.
Using rivets instead of bolts will help a lot with weight as well.

Ditch the bolts and as much 1/8" as possible, we've never had a frame over 10 lbs

EDIT: I'm referring to drive frame and superstructure frame separately.

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Ditch the bolts and as much 1/8" as possible, we've never had a frame over 10 lbs

EDIT: I'm referring to drive frame and superstructure frame separately.

The tower is all 1/16th but the drive mostly 1/8th. We are planning on switching over to 10# hardware and 5/16 rivets.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

The tower is all 1/16th but the drive mostly 1/8th. We are planning on switching over to 10# hardware and 5/16 rivets.

3/16" Right

-RC

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by R.C.

3/16" Right

-RC

Maybe......

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by R.C.

3/16" Right

-RC

5/32" maybe? that's what we usually use

If you can't manage to get aluminum welded, you might try using steel, it's easy to weld....there's probably someone on your team who can do it. We got a new freshman to weld our steel frame together this year.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

We're planning on cutting our gussets and bellypan with a hackerspace's waterjet.

I assume you're referring to Techshop.

Unless you've managed to get them to sponsor your team, or your baseplate is vastly simpler than ours, it would be extremely expensive to jet one there. Probably on the order of $500-750.

[AlecS]

Originally Posted by Cory

I assume you're referring to Techshop.

Unless you've managed to get them to sponsor your team, or your baseplate is vastly simpler than ours, it would be extremely expensive to jet one there. Probably on the order of $500-750.

The current price is 2$ a minute of pump time for members at SJ. 1323's bellypan last year was about 45-50 minutes a piece on a similar sized waterjet, so it would probably come out to about $200 per. Not super cheap, but I've had laser shops charge more than that just for setup even with a discount.

[josesantos]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Yes, our entire 2012 robot (and various parts of older robots) were held together with gussets, not welding.

We made our own cnc router, so the ability to cut arbitrary gussets in house on zero notice was helpful.

Your suggestion of having a sponsor cut gussets is totally valid, a waterjet or laser will fly through 1/16" plate.

What material did you use to cut your gussets? Given that you used a router, I'd assume that you used polycarbonate or some other plastic.