T-Slot extruded aluminum

[Ben Piecuch]

As a follow up to the pricing, 80/20 do give a 50% discount to all FIRST Teams. You need to state that you're with a FIRST Robotics team, and then make sure that the salesperson you are dealing with is aware of the discount as well.

We've been using 8020 for the past three years and love it! Very easy to assemble, modify, replace, and maintain. The weight isn't as bad as everyone thinks. The weight of 1010 is with 5% of 1" (.125 wall) Al square tube. AND, it's stiffness in bending and torsion is within 5% as well. The extra weight of the connectors will be about 2lbs for us this year. So, a little extra effort up front to save weight will certainly pay off with the flexibility of this product.

I'll quickly quote some full prices for you. (You can do the math for the discount.)

Profiles
1010: $.21/inch
1515-lite: $.42/inch

Cut Charges (For pieces shorter than 144")
7005: $1.85 (1010 profile)
7010: $1.85 (1515 profile)

Connectors
3090: $1.20 (Double Anchor for 1010)
3098: $5.50 (Double Anchor for 1515)

Feel free to ask more questions about extruded profiles. OH, we've found that paying for them to cut the pieces to lenght FAR outweighs the cost of having a full lenght piece sent! Good luck!

BEN

P.S. We've never "broken" a piece of 8020, that's absurd. As I've mentioned above, the 10-profile of 8020 is of the same weight, strength, and stiffness of a 1" square al tube. The joints can be a weakness, if not properly made. The same can be said about a welded square tubing frame. To properly assemble 8020 extrusions, the ends must be machined square and perpendicular, no hack saws here! And end mill on a milling machine is the best way to achieve this. For the connetors, we've always used the double anchors (see above.) These handle far more load than the 90 degree brackets, the single anchors, and the drill and bolt together method. And, will these extrusions handle a "fall" from the platform, most certainly. Please, contact 8020 (or similar companies) and ask for a free demo. They'll bring a truck straight to your door, full of profiles, connectors, brackets, and loads of other fun stuff. You won't be disappointed.