Framing with Esto Connectors

[Orion.DeYoe]

In a thread a few months ago someone (I wish I remembered who) mentioned that they put together all or part of their robot frame with connectors from this company: http://www.estoconnectors.com/
McMaster sells similar parts, but for 3-4 times the price. My new team is working on a simple offseason bot and I'm looking into trying this for the superstructure. The tubing is similar to VexPro's VersaFrame however doesn't have brackets that interfere with bumpers and things.
If the friction fit isn't enough to withstand a beating then my thought is to drill through the tube and the fitting and put a #10 fastener through for some extra strength.
My question is: Has anyone ever used this or a similar system and how well did that work? Also, would you advise even trying this in the offseason?

[Samwaldo]

I have mentioned them often on CD. We have built 2 competition robots (2012 & 2014) and a few demo bots with these. The frames took quite a beating. 2012 - falling off the bridge alot. 2014 - the defense we became know for in NE, and the catapult pulling on the frame.

They hold up nicely, but we have learned alot

Pros -
1) we build a chassis in a day! Its so easy and quick. Pickup took minutes.
2) look fantastic. We are asked about them alot due to the clean look.
3) quite durable if used corrected. We used it on the 2014 pickup. It was often rammed due to it out of the frame. Not once replaced.

Cons -
1)if not supported well, they will bend.
2)a bit expensive and hard to reuse
3)we sheetmetal screw them on if on an important structure that vibrates alot.

Overall, we love them and plan to use them more. FYI: we won engineering excellence at a district, partially due to them

[Steven Donow]

I haven't used those in a drivetrain-but 223's 2011 and 2012 had superstructures that were predominantly made out of 1x1 with those connectors. They're great and easy to work with, especially if you have limited machining capabilities. You can basically make your entire frame with a table saw in one afternoon. Depending on specific application, mounting can be troublesome, but overall not too much of a pain.

2012 we used it on dropdown intake/bridge dropper and I don't think it got super damaged even with just friction fit. It's late so I'll scrounge up some pictures tomorrow.

[ChuckDickerson]

80/20 QuickFrame is remarketed Esto framing. We have used it quite extensively and with great success on many of our FRC robots and offseason project since 2006.

[protoserge]

Our pit walls are made of Esto connectors and 1" square tubing.

You can also use a punch to make an indent on the tubing. It has worked quite well for us and is a fairly good friction fit. I wouldn't use this method on a robot that will ever see impacts though.