pic: Coaxial Swerve drive, lightened.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Stephen Kowski

You don't have to use a punch....you could get it done by a waterjet or laser just as easy....

something tells me that teams are more likely to have a punch then a waterjet...

[DB_UPS]

Originally Posted by Cory

Sheetmetal is only easier if you have the resources to precisely punch and bend it. Otherwise it's a disaster waiting to happen.

Good point. But 1/8 sheet metal bends really nice in a vise. You can also mill holes in it, thats if you now to do it right. So you do need a punch.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by DB_UPS

Good point. But 1/8 sheet metal bends really nice in a vise. You can also mill holes in it, thats if you now to do it right. So you do need a punch.

There's absolutely no way you can fabricate a swerve module out of sheetmetal by bending it in a vise--it needs to be very precise, far more than you can ever be by using such a method.

[DB_UPS]

If you want to make some thing works. You can do. It may not look pretty, but it would work.

Just in case people are wondering why we would go with 1/4" plate rather than sheet metal, here are our reason: it's light enough, we get mass amounts of it for free, our CNC sponsor prefers doing machining on this plate, and it's quite strong for its use.