Standard vs. Custom Frame

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by Viper37

Disingenuous from your point of view, not my own. Save the rhetoric.

[offtopic] I've seen this an awful lot, people seem to use the word rhetoric for just about any bit of writing they disagree with. Rhetoric (according to Dictionary.com) means 1. (in writing or speech) the undue use of exaggeration or display; bombast. 2. the art or science of all specialized literary uses of language in prose or verse, including the figures of speech. 3. the study of the effective use of language. 4. the ability to use language effectively. 5. the art of prose in general as opposed to verse. 6. the art of making persuasive speeches; oratory. 7. (in classical oratory) the art of influencing the thought and conduct of an audience. 8. (in older use) a work on rhetoric. Most of the posts in this thread probably use rhetoric in one form or another.[/offtopic]

We have used custom plywood and 80/20 chassis, as well as the kit chassis. I can't say much about the 80/20 frames because I haven't had much experience with them (our last operational one's transmissions died my rookie year), so I'm just going to talk about our experiences with plywood and the KOP.

Our two robots with the plywood chassis were our '03 and '04 'bots. The chassis on the '03 robot held up admirably, especially considering the amount of abuse it withstood that year, and it still runs fine today with only cosmetic damage. (paint scratched, a couple of chips missing from a few edges, that sort of thing) The '04 frame was nowhere near as good due to the wood being, IIRC, 1/4" thinner than '03, which caused the frame to be rather flexy. Both frames were nice in that they are easy to assemble/disassemble, and don't require advanced tools to construct. The wood frames also had the advantages of being easy to adapt for a design change mid-build and replacement parts are easy to come by.

In our experiences with the kit frame in '05 and '06 (playing heavy defense each year) it provides a strong, relatively lightweight and customizable frame. For teams with low resources, or those that want a working drive base early in the season, this frame is very nice. We have had no major problems or complaints.

It is really a design decision individual to the team, but I'd recommend at least trying out the kit frame while the parts for a custom frame are made, you might just surprise yourself with just how nice it is.