Riveting up a frame

[Viper37]

Why cant students weld?

[clean399]

Most students we can trust to do work like that but there is those few who don't know when joking around should not be done. Also riveting is a lot easier to learn how to do rather than welding.

[Viper37]

Originally Posted by clean399

Most students we can trust to do work like that but there is those few who don't know when joking around should not be done. Also riveting is a lot easier to learn how to do rather than welding.

Personally, I find it alot easier to lay a bead then riveting, but to each his own.

and who cares if it works.

[JessR]

We have aluminum pop riveted some assemblies with excellent results.
A good design practice is to use a splice plate or gusset plate at connections between two structural members & install multiple rivets in each member.
For instance at a right angle connection between two tubes, put a triangular gusset top & bottom with 4 rivets thru the gusset plates into each tube.
This also spreads the load over a larger area of the frame tubes, reducing the likelyhood of exceeding material yield at a single concentrated point if using one rivet.
A 3/16 rivet is the same size as a #10 screw. Holes are easy to drill and they are plenty strong for anything on a FIRST robot if using multiple rivets at a joint.

1/8 rivet are great for adding small plates for limit switches etc. or reinforcing structures after it's all bolted together.

[Paul Copioli]

We used rivets in 2005 and 2006 and those were our best robots, by far. We used 1/8" aluminum rivets with aluminum mandrels in most places, but 1/8" aluminum rivets with steel mandrels in places where we could not use a lot of rivets, but needed strength. Our entire drive base, main structure and end of arm in 2005 were riveted sheet metal. Our entire drive base, tower, and shooter frame in 2006 were riveted sheet metal.

Anyone who says the rivets are not strong enough have either not used it, or implemented the rivets improperly. Strength to weight ratio is out of this world and I will race anyone changing out a component riveted together vs. bolted together. Our riveted components can be repaired and replaced much faster with rivets than with nuts and bolts.

Using 1/4" rivets in the kit frame should prove very effective. Also remember, you want to have a mechanical fuse when it comes to collisions. We usually do not have the weight to design our components against severe crashes/mishaps, but the rivets will break in key areas in order to save components.