pic: 2011 Drive Prototype

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Be wary, welding 1/8" wall to 1/16" wall can be entertaining. Are you planning on having a welder do it for you, or will a student be doing the welding? 1/16" wall is veeeeery thin, and can splatter and deform under the hands of a less experienced welder.

I would agree with your warning. My team bolted our chassis last year, but in 2009 we had a fairly complex chassis of a mix between 1/16 and 1/8, wall tubing. If a professional welder is doing it you have nothing to worry about, but if he's not you have a lot to worry about. I tend to be an aluminum type of guy, but if you don't have an experienced welder, then you could go with steel, and shrink the wall sizes significantly. My team has a mentor who, among othert things, is a very good welder, and we had no problems with our frame, but we have let kids weld on prototypes and such that weren't on the real robot, and it didn't turn out so well.

I like where the model is headed, keep up the good work.