80/20 ?!?!?!

[flamefixed]

how easy is it to work with the 80/20 stock? do you use all the special bearings and brackets and mounts ect? Or just fab something up for it? And anyone have success tig-ing it?

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by flamefixed

And anyone have success tig-ing it?

It has a clear anodize on it, so you'd need to get rid of that before welding.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by flamefixed

how easy is it to work with the 80/20 stock? do you use all the special bearings and brackets and mounts ect? Or just fab something up for it? And anyone have success tig-ing it?

Its very easy. We use some of the official brackets, but we make most of our own - its MUCH cheaper to make your own. 80/20 isn't the cheapest material! We only use 80/20 in limited applications. It's kinda heavy to build an antire robot out of (and expensive). Also, 80/20 frames tend to twist and loose their square.

In 2007 We used four pieces of 80/20 1010 in our drivetrain. It made tensioning the chains really easy. We'll be doing that again this year...

I've also had good luck TIG-ing it. You just need to REALLY sand it down and make sure all the anodization has been removed. Otherwise you won't get any penetration.

[Otaku]

675 is.

For like the first time... ever since I can remember being on the team.

Although admittedly, it's a REALLY cool application of the material, imo.

[BK Lounge]

team 1591. god that stuff is great

[Darunada]

We've had bad experiences with it falling apart every year, even when it's not a component that does anything. We have ALWAYS had to drill through it and run a bolt to get it to stop sliding.

Since it's difficult to drill through 80/20, we WOULD be better of using something else, it would just save us work! Our mentor, though, swears by the stuff because of it's modular nature. It doesn't become so modular once it's bolted into place. He's never around during that part

So my final opinion: Prototyping, maybe. Final build, no way.

[ida_noeman]

Where can you order 80/20 from?

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by ida_noeman

Where can you order 80/20 from?

Ues this link to find a disributor near you. Tell them what you need and they'll send you a quote. Then you can send in your quote and get the parts in a matter of days.

If you want to order online, there is an Ebay-store that carries it.

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by ida_noeman

Where can you order 80/20 from?

You can get some pretty good deals at http://stores.ebay.com/8020-Inc-Garage-Sale

Some of the stuff is auctioned (like 1010 extrusion), others items (like fastener hardware) is "Buy it Now".

You can save quite a bit of money through this e-bay seller. Don't forget to use the normal retail price when you do you cost accounting for the robot BOM.

[Armando Gonzalez]

We have substituted our Bible with an 80/20 catalog.

[LightWaves1636]

Originally Posted by tanmaker

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!

I know my team is defiantly using it because our limited resources in a shop and on my old team we usually found 80/20 to be incredibly lighter than we throught and we used a lot of it for the arm, mast, chassis, well just about the entire robot. 80/20 is difficult to use for the inexperience but once you know how to manipulate it, it's amazing stuff.

[1619Aaron]

1619 used it for our robot carrier when we built it.

[team 2191]

what is 80/20?

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by team 2191

what is 80/20?

It's structural extruded aluminum with special fasteners (like "drop-in" nuts) that can simplify building the chassis and other portions of the robot.

Team 980 has used 80/20 1010 extrusion for the chassis for years. It may be more expensive that square extrusion, but the strength/weight ratio and ease of assembly more than justifies the extra cost. This year, I purchased the 1010 stock for our robots on e-bay at a substantially lower price than what you'd pay at distributors. See my post above for more info (post #40).

BTW, before posting in CD, you should at least read the thread in which you're asking questions. Please read posts #11 (photo of 80/20 extrusion attached) and #35.