Welded Frame Horror Stories

[Peter Matteson]

I thought the fastening 306 did this year was a neat idea just really machine work intensive, I talked to one of your mentors about it at Philly.

We use 1"x1"x1/16" AL 6061 box for our frame and had no issues with breaking anything. We planned for a high impact game last year and built a properly reinforced ladder frame to handle the load. The only damage that our frame showed after 2 regionals, the championship and Battlecry was on the front where there is a slight indent (~1/8").

I don't believe cantelievering will be an issue if you support it right but I don't reccomend unless you protect you wheels well.

A couple other comments:
Don't pre-drill your mounting holes before welding. Assume you will have some misalignment/warping from the heat of welding.
TIG!
Drill vent hole to allow hot gas to escape when closing a box.
Bolt to the frame properly. I.E. don't put a bolt all the way through the box and crush it, use rivnuts.
1x1x1/8 angle weighs the same as 1x1x1/16 box. Sounds stupid, but people forget. Also 1x1x1/8 weighs almost the same as 1010 8020 extrusion.