Should my team pre drill our extrusion?

Technical
1

So most vendors sell pre drilled extrusion with the holes already in them. Our team tends to get ours from local sources, so our extrusion is fully smooth. I was wondering if it was a good idea to predrill it like the other extrusion in preparation for competition season.

1 Like
2

I would hold off. That is A) a lot of time, labor, and drillbits. And B) wayyy to easy to mess up and all of the gussets don’t fit correctly.

This time of year can be difficult to find stuff for people to do, but drilling 2000 holes sounds more like torture than learning tbh

3 Likes
3

I was thinking we would use our cnc instead of having people manually drill them.

1 Like
4

This would be fully legal (before and after the rule change recently). How often do you end up needing tube without that hole pattern in it?

1 Like
5

Maybe a different kettle of fish then.

6

We get tube unpunched and just drill holes where we need them. I would say its not worth either the effort or the CNC time

4 Likes
7

As a team that had a lot of 2x1 and 1x1 donated for free and then predrilled it. It took about 30 - 45 mins a stick and once the bit get’s a little dull you have a lot of blowout. Our holes came out straight but I could easily see it being a problem.

image
image804×700 49.9 KB

1 Like
8

It’s only worth it if you want to have a mounting pattern ready for adding undefined things to a fixed drive base and you think adding the holes after the fact will be difficult, cause problems, or they need to be tapped which may not be possible when assembled. Otherwise its best to add holes as needed with transfer punches etc.

1 Like
9

Massively underrated tool in the shop. They are cheap, if you don’t have some, get some.

https://www.harborfreight.com/28-piece-transfer-punch-set-3577.html

2 Likes
10

Citrus will be drilling piles of 48 inch lengths of 2x1, 1x1, in both 1/16th and 1/8th wall before kickoff this year. We are going to work around the pattern like we always do and make anything weird as needed.

4 Likes
11

The appropriate attitude in general considering every robot is a prototype at the end of the day

1 Like