80/20 Sources

[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