quick question to all about why using KOP metal.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by CuriousGeorge

why not just buy stock and weld?

Lack of money, facilities, time or expertise are good reasons.

A few days after Kickoff, one group from our team was drawing out plans for a custom made frame. We would have someone machine it for us. The other half of the team, for lack of anything better to do at the time, decided to put the kit frame together for prototyping until we got our real frame made. Without looking at the instructions (because we didn't have internet hooked up in the room at the time) we managed to put it together in an hour or so. Then got some old wheels out of the closet and put them on axles through the kitbot frame. We looked at it and thought, "Hmmmm - it might work." We've gone with it, made a couple minor modifications, and it looks like it will work out well for us.

With a tower made of 8020 attached.

[EricH]

Here are some reasons: Cost. Time. Resources. Strength.

The team I am currently mentoring is a "low-resource" team. No welder. Hand tools only. It's taken us long enough just to get the thing running...imagine if we made a custom frame. Also, it's free, and I personally have NEVER seen one break. Not even bend. (I did tell the team to loctite the bolts for the final build. Hopefully they will, so no robot droppings.) Plus, it's extremely versatile--I can think of three different drivetrains that would just slap in in about 10-15 minutes.

[dtengineering]

You've seen a kitbot frame BREAK?

I won't contradict that evidence, but will agree that with the vast majority of posters on this thread that... properly assembled... the things are darn near indestructible when used in FRC applications. We've used them ever since they were part of the KOP... and while we chop them, mill them, weld them and flip them upside down, they always come out far stronger than we need.

I guess you can make anything break if you build it to break (although the kitbot frame is pretty hard to screw up), but anything that breaks a kitbot frame is probably breaking most custom frames of similar weight, too.

Jason