I was wondering where teams buy the aluminum extrusion commonly used in frames. (The stuff with the X shape but has the four corners and is square)
Sorry about the vague description.
dont know much about where to get it, but it seems that you are talking about 80/20.
http://www.team639.org/html/about/robot/2005/1.jpg
Here is a picture of what i am refering to.
Unless you have a really simple game playing strategy, I wouldn’t recommend that stuff for a FIRST Robot. For me, it is just too heavy to do everything I want. But, to answer your question, you can get it from Item America.
from what i can tell of the picture thats 80/20 and you have to order it from the 80/20 company. i dont have the ordering info but keep in contact and i could possibly have it to you by tomarrow night.
If you go to 8020 and click on “Distributor Lookup”](http://www.8020.net/PostalLookup.asp) you will be able to enter your ZIP code and find distributors in your area.
BTW, one of the local distributors ended up sponsoring us!! Way to go Teco Pneumatics!!!
The most common kinds of aluminum extrusion I have seen in FIRST Robotics, is 80/20 and Bosch.
80/20 is I think what you are looking for. (The description of “Plus shaped” kinda gave it away)
See attachment below.
That size is the 1010 series… and is approximately 1" x 1" square(ish) lol.
80/20 is great to work with, despite being a bit heavy. The 1010 series (1"x1" cube) is about .5 lbs/foot.
We used it as “uprights” for our arm, utilizing the t-slot convienience. Makes tightening the chain driving it a breeze (either move up the arm or move down the motors), as well and raising/lowering/adjusting our arm in about 20 seconds.
Industrial Profile systems (or Parker) Located in Mass.
The people in sales are very nice…
612 uses it and its great because u can easily re-tension ur drive and we are using belts so it comes in handy
Thanks a lot, guys.
Its not for this year, I was just curious.
If you do go with Item, you’ll save quite a bit of weight, and not just on the extrusion. Being metric, you’ll be using M5 bolts, which are plenty strong enough for most FIRST applications, and that’ll cut alot off the old 1/4"-20.
We used to use Item and pretty much loved the flexibility it offered. Can be blessing or a nightmare. Design flexibility can result in lower quality, less thought-out devices, and literally, the stuff flexes quite easily if you don’t fasten the corners properly.
oh yeah, i forgot to say that if you have the money you could probably substitute whatever you need the 80/20 for with either angle iron or aluminum square tubing (much lighter)