pic: Team 3647 West Coast Drive

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Also important to this design - rivets are better in shear than bolts.

Care to elaborate on that? For example, I'd find it very hard to believe that a 1/4" pop rivet (steel or aluminum) is better in shear than the shank on a graded 1/4-20 bolt.

A properly designed and setup bolted joint can sustain more shear loading than the bolts themselves alone. The friction between the two parts, as generated by the clamping load of the threaded fastener, carries a substantial amount of load in addition to the bolts. Can the same be said for rivets?

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

How do you feel about plywood, yeah it is ugly but it is cheap. How effective do you feel it would be? I know that 1114's Kitbot on Steroids uses 3/4" plywood for their electronics mount.

Team 95 likes to use 1/2" or 3/8" high quality birch plywood. It is plenty strong enough and is lighter and more visually appealing that 3/4" construction grade plywood.