Lightweight Aluminum Vex Metal Kit

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by nonother

So essentially it's twice the cost (or to be exact $47.11) to have it in aluminum, not a $20ish premium. So you could have twice the amount of metal for the same cost if you bought it as galvanized steel. That's a pretty significant difference.

D'oh! Missed that--for some reason, I thought a metal kit was a metal kit.

Regardless, I still believe you'll see a lot of this on the field, particularly on manipulators. Think about the weapon of choice for Half-Pipe Hustle: the tilting tank tread loader. (Definitive example in Orangeburg: FVC 171) Many of those devices required a lot of metal to make 'em sturdy. Cut that weight down, and you're suddenly capable of lifting the same balls up to the goals even faster (or lifting more balls at the same performance level, to the extent that the sizing box will allow).

This year, since you've got so many field elements, I see teams trying to figure out how best to use their motors and servos to accomplish the widest variety of functions that they safely and reliably can. If you can make a mechanism work on one motor where it once worked with two, you leave the door open for a mechanism elsewhere. (Monkeybot, anyone?)