FRC T-bone-ing and Hexagonal drive

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

+1

In 2014 3467 had some extra edges up our sides which were a necessity for our shooter packaging and not added for t-bones which ended up being a benefit in a heavily defensive game.

Personally the bumper construction & mounting is what makes this frame style very hard to pull off easily.

Can't speak for how 1678 achieved theirs, but on 3467 we had five individual pieces of plywood with the three side pieces held together by a patiently cut down/sanded 2x4 since we didn't have access to sheet metal. It was as unpleasant as it sounded and very weak. IIRC a versa gusset or two was thrown in at some point after the plywood started to crack.

I was shocked with how similar our bots ended up looking in 2014, great minds or something I guess...

We pretty much made our bumpers the same way as you guys, except replace the 2x4 with a funky looking sheet metal piece. Sheet metal was bent in-house with a vise and hammer (we were still working out of a shipping container in 2014...)

Agreed with everyone on this bumper shape not being a priority for most teams. We worked with 971 on the science behind it, mostly because we were tired of being immobilized mid-match when we just want to score points. The research we did before build definitely paid off in a game like 2014.

-Mike