80/20 Sources

[Lisa Perez]

McMaster provides 80/20 if you need it quickly: http://www.mcmaster.com/#t-slotted-extrusions/=kplyjl

They also provide the fasteners in pairs (both bolt and nut): http://www.mcmaster.com/#metric-t-sl...raming/=kpm0zo

The 10-32 thread and M-5 thread are similar, but not identical. The 10-32 bolts can work if you absolutely need to use them since the thread engagement with the T-nuts is small. However, if that thread engagement were to increase, you'd have issues with internal and external threads interfering.

[ksafin]

Personally, I recommend T-Slots (http://www.tslots.com/)

We purchased all of our extrusions, brackets, bolts, nuts, etc from them last year.

They have a huge variety of stuff that'll match 80/20 and will have anything you could possibly need, really.

The best part? They give 50% off to FRC Robotics Teams and offer FREE shipping once each month. When you're ordering, like, 100 pounds of extrusions, brackets, and bolts.. well.. that's a deal you can't refuse.

Plus, we ordered $2,000 of stuff last year that pretty much did it for our robot - but wait, the 50% took it down to $1,000! So yeah, T-Slots is amazing.

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by ksafin

Personally, I recommend T-Slots (http://www.tslots.com/)

We purchased all of our extrusions, brackets, bolts, nuts, etc from them last year.

They have a huge variety of stuff that'll match 80/20 and will have anything you could possibly need, really.

The best part? They give 50% off to FRC Robotics Teams and offer FREE shipping once each month. When you're ordering, like, 100 pounds of extrusions, brackets, and bolts.. well.. that's a deal you can't refuse.

Plus, we ordered $2,000 of stuff last year that pretty much did it for our robot - but wait, the 50% took it down to $1,000! So yeah, T-Slots is amazing.

ALLOFMYWHAT.JPEG

Is this a deal for all FIRST teams or is that an assumption you're extrapolating from the support that your team has received?

Additionally, how are they one shipping times? Our current supplier gives us a nice deal, but it takes then upwards of 2 weeks to get the materials to us.

Thanks,
- Sunny G.

EDIT: Additionally, what distributor did you deal with? Or was it directly through TSlots?

[ksafin]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

ALLOFMYWHAT.JPEG

Is this a deal for all FIRST teams or is that an assumption you're extrapolating from the support that your team has received?

Additionally, how are they one shipping times? Our current supplier gives us a nice deal, but it takes then upwards of 2 weeks to get the materials to us.

Thanks,
- Sunny G.

EDIT: Additionally, what distributor did you deal with? Or was it directly through TSlots?

It's a phenomenal deal - available to all FIRST teams.

We deal directly with T-slots. I believe last year when we ordered them, they came the same week (if we ordered monday, we had them by the end of the week).

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by ksafin

It's a phenomenal deal - available to all FIRST teams.

We deal directly with T-slots. I believe last year when we ordered them, they came the same week (if we ordered monday, we had them by the end of the week).

Well then, I've sent them a message. It'd be incredible if we can get in on this.

- Sunny G.

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by ksafin

It's a phenomenal deal - available to all FIRST teams.

We deal directly with T-slots. I believe last year when we ordered them, they came the same week (if we ordered monday, we had them by the end of the week).

Just heard back from TSLOTS and we're lined up for a 50% discount as well. Definitely a steal.

Thanks,
- Sunny G.

[robokiller]

I work for an 80/20 distributor, I don't think we can do 50% but we have done 40% before. My company's name is Florida Motion and Control. I'm not sure if we can ship out of our area because of distributor territory, But as a tip to keep your orders quick the biggest time killer is machining and plastics. I am going to be using 80/20 this year and I will be tapping holes myself and getting lexan from other places to reduce that machine time.

Jaxon Weis
Florida Motion and Control

[Ed Sparks]

At one time we used this type of extrusion in our designs but like many things in FRC it has its ups and downs.

On the up side, it allows rapid construction of framework and its very easy to make design changes. The T-slots allow mounting of various components in an infinate number of places. It's easy to cut (chop saw) and machine.

On the down side, we found that things moved around a bit. During impacts with other robots and/or field elements, those t-nuts will slip no matter how much you tighten them. They also seem to work loose with vibration so check them fairly often. We also reached a point where we felt that the weight of this material was a little more than we wanted to budget for the frame so we moved on to a different custom solution.

I think this is wonderful stuff and a step up from many frame solutions utilized in FRC but beware of some of the pitfalls I mentioned.

[PhantomPhyxer]

This might help you solve the M5 vs. 10-32 question.

http://www.zytrax.com/tech/mech/threads.htm

Norman Collier