80/20 ?!?!?!

[flamefixed]

So, how many teams are using 80/20 stuff.
Of course you dont need to say what its for, it may even be discouraged in this thread, im just wondering who all is utilizing it.

[MochaBear]

Team 219 is and im sure you will be amazed at how we used it, but im thinking that if its that good of an idea other teams have thought of it.

just wait

[wmatt2014]

We're using 80/20 for our vertical arm, and bracing for our upper chassis

[Justin M.]

We're using it for our forklift mechanism.

Originally Posted by Justin M.

We're using it for our forklift mechanism.

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!

[=Martin=Taylor=]

We're using it for the manipulator and drive train.

[Madison]

We've ordered some.

(Just for a tiny bit of the robot, though.)

[cziggy343]

yeah... we use 80/20 in some way just about every year. this year, for our base and maybe a few other things...

[tseres]

excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the 80/20 stuff?

[cziggy343]

Originally Posted by tseres

excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the 80/20 stuff?

http://users.adelphia.net/~javamoose/CNC/Build/001.jpg

there's a nice pic

[burkey_turkey]

We cant find any the size we want. Were looking for something like .5 x 1 or .75 x 1.5. Ive looked through a couple catalogs but cant find any that small. smallest piece with the same ratio are 1x2 and thats too big and heavy.

[hipsterjr]

We have scrap bins full of the stuff at Bosch. We use it for everything but framing.

[Andy A.]

Originally Posted by tseres

excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the 80/20 stuff?

Sometimes people call it '80% of what you want for 20% of the effort'.

It's a system of extruded aluminum and fasteners that allow for quick and easy modifications. Attaching pieces of it together requires, typically, no more then hand tools.

The down sides are typical to any sort of modular building kit; Cost and weight. It's not cheap, and the fasteners aren't either. Because of the shape of the extrusion required to make the fasteners easy to use it's heavy for it's size.

It's a pretty high price to pay for the ease it offers. But a lot of rookie teams make use of it because you can toss a frame together with nothing more then a hacksaw and a wrench. If you don't have much in the way of tooling, or experience with frame building, it can be a godsend. Otherwise more traditional extrusions and fasteners offer much more.

[aksimhal]

Originally Posted by cziggy343

yeah... we use 80/20 in some way just about every year. this year, for our base and maybe a few other things...

ditto for 1123. We used it on our arm last year, and plan to use it again this year.

[lukevanoort]

We have loads of 80/20 lying around that was either cannibalized from the pre-kitbot robots or just extra from those same years. Usually, some makes it into the robot somehow (mounts, standoffs, etc), but we usually don't plan to do it. Last year, for example, we made our electronics cover out of 1/8" polycarbonate and 80/20 (well, actually it was 20mm Bosch, but they're essentially the same thing); we did not plan this, it was just the most convenient material to do it with (although, in retrospect, we could have just bent and riveted the polycarb). So, while I have no doubt that there will be some 80/20 on the 2008 machine, I don't know where yet.