80/20 ?!?!?!

Originally Posted by Justin M.

We're using it for our forklift mechanism.

1986 is definitely not using it. It seems to heavy and too expensive to make it a feasible robot material. If you have the money and are underweight, then more power to you!

[=Martin=Taylor=]

We're using it for the manipulator and drive train.

[Madison]

We've ordered some.

(Just for a tiny bit of the robot, though.)

[cziggy343]

yeah... we use 80/20 in some way just about every year. this year, for our base and maybe a few other things...

[tseres]

excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the 80/20 stuff?

[cziggy343]

Originally Posted by tseres

excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the 80/20 stuff?

http://users.adelphia.net/~javamoose/CNC/Build/001.jpg

there's a nice pic

[burkey_turkey]

We cant find any the size we want. Were looking for something like .5 x 1 or .75 x 1.5. Ive looked through a couple catalogs but cant find any that small. smallest piece with the same ratio are 1x2 and thats too big and heavy.

[Fred Sayre]

Originally Posted by burkey_turkey

We cant find any the size we want. Were looking for something like .5 x 1 or .75 x 1.5. Ive looked through a couple catalogs but cant find any that small. smallest piece with the same ratio are 1x2 and thats too big and heavy.

You could look at the 1050 profile. It is 1"x0.5" but only has the t-slot on one side.

http://8020.net/T-Slot-4.asp

[Justin M.]

80/20 is great, great stuff. Just make sure you get the right stuff - some of it can be very heavy. We used it for pieces of our arm, our control board, motor mounts, and pieces of our chassis last year. It's really versatile stuff, I especially like the t-nut system. You can mount something virtually anywhere in the slot in a matter of seconds, no drilling, tapping, or any of that stuff.

[hipsterjr]

We have scrap bins full of the stuff at Bosch. We use it for everything but framing.

[ahecht]

I would hope that Bosch doesn't have bins and bins of 80/20, as they are a direct competitor. I assume it's Bosch-Rexroth aluminum framing.

[hipsterjr]

Originally Posted by ahecht

I would hope that Bosch doesn't have bins and bins of 80/20, as they are a direct competitor. I assume it's Bosch-Rexroth aluminum framing.

Yeah, that's it. We just call it FMS. http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...ges/struts.gif

[Gdeaver]

Our team is trying something different this year. We used the kit frame the last couple years. This year we are making the frame out of 8020 quick frame and EZ-Tube connectors. We pounded our frame together on Saturday. Was nice not to have to deal with the bolts.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by ahecht

I would hope that Bosch doesn't have bins and bins of 80/20, as they are a direct competitor. I assume it's Bosch-Rexroth aluminum framing.

Hahahahahahahaha!!! Oh man.. that just made my day... lol

Btw, 80/20 1" "square" 1010 series has a hole in the middle of it as you may have noticed.

This is the perfect size to tap a hole for a 1/4-20 screw into.
That's usually the job the freshmen on the team get when they want an intro to manufacturing.
It's a simple task, and a prerequisite on our team to know how to tap those before moving onto more difficult tasks.

[Andy A.]

Originally Posted by tseres

excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the 80/20 stuff?

Sometimes people call it '80% of what you want for 20% of the effort'.

It's a system of extruded aluminum and fasteners that allow for quick and easy modifications. Attaching pieces of it together requires, typically, no more then hand tools.

The down sides are typical to any sort of modular building kit; Cost and weight. It's not cheap, and the fasteners aren't either. Because of the shape of the extrusion required to make the fasteners easy to use it's heavy for it's size.

It's a pretty high price to pay for the ease it offers. But a lot of rookie teams make use of it because you can toss a frame together with nothing more then a hacksaw and a wrench. If you don't have much in the way of tooling, or experience with frame building, it can be a godsend. Otherwise more traditional extrusions and fasteners offer much more.