How much metal to get?

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by vivek16

I have a general idea of how much metal to get and to be safe I came up with these numbers:

Square aluminum 1"x1"x1/16" extrusion- # of 6' pieces: 10 should last us a while with prototyping and pre-season robot/training with weleding and what not.

Aluminum sheet: I am having a bit of trouble with this. How much? of 5052? of 6061? what thickness?
The place we will be getting it from has up to 0.19 inch thickness.

EDIT: How much do you think we would have to spend?

My advice for you would be to find a place that sells scrap metal and buy a whole bunch of cheap stuff. Its better to have an assortment than a lot of the same thing.

But if you do decide to get new metal, than I would get 5' of 1/16" and 5' of 1/8". 1/16" is very useful because it is light, but as Kevin said it can't carry a lot of force. I know we used a lot of both last year.

As for plate I have found that 1/8" is a nice balance between heavy-rigid 1/4" and light-flimsy 1/16". I would get a fairly large piece of that, maybe 2'x2'. I would also get a small piece of 1/4", it is very useful when making gearboxes and bearing-mounts. Maybe get a 1.5'x1.5' piece. I myself try to avoid sheet metal. It takes special knowledge and tools to use it successfully.

Originally Posted by vivek16

EDIT: How much do you think we would have to spend?

Expect to spend $200. But it really depends on where your getting it from and of course how much .