pic: How's this?

[JVN]

Originally Posted by androb4

All the aluminum is 1/8" thick, 6061 T-6

1/8" is waaaay overkill for most of those parts. You can definitely go to 0.090" or 0.063" for a lot of them.

Also - We use 5052 for our bent stuff, and 6061 for our flat stuff. 5052 bends a whole lot better.

Originally Posted by androb4

ONE thing I need help with is, riveting. What size whole and what rivets should I use for the camera mount? Any suggestions? Also for attaching the sides of the hood the the square tubing on the outside.

I've used a lot of 5/32" rivets in the past for structural. 1/4" rivets for "really beefy overdesigned structural pieces" and 1/8" rivets where 5/32" won't fit (for the sake of commonization I use 5/32" wherever possible).

The camera mount is way over designed, in my opinion. You can get away with 0.063" metal, and still truss it like crazy. If you design it such that the metal forms closed box sections, it will still be stiff as heck.

-John