My question is one I cannot find in the manual…are we aloud to use zip ties to hold everything together?
I wouldn’t recommend them for everything, but they are useful, and allowed, for many applications.
If you can’t find it in the manual, the it is probably allowed.
But zip ties are not very strong, so it’s best to use them only to hold light weight things, such as wires and tubing.
There are few restrictions on fasteners. Zip ties happen to not be restricted.
However, you should use caution; they can provide a rather loose connection if used improperly.
We’ve used zip ties for years - almost (maybe entirely) exclusively for wire routing.
Hi Urbana,
We are lucky here to have a couple of very knowledgeable and experienced mentors who will gladly answer questions from any Maryland team. I will pm their contact. Make sure your team advisors are getting the weekly updates from them with lots of valuable info.
Interestingly, the official playing field is held together to some extent with zipties…
Is it allowed to hold everything together with zipties? yes.
Is it wise to hold everything together with zipties? Probably not.
Zip ties are to FIRST as duct tape is to the common man. 
I wonder how long it’ll take before a robot will be fastened exclusively out of zip ties…
… with all the tails clipped to save weight! 
You can use zip ties to hold everything together but its not recomemded becasue they are not very strong.
It’s best not to exaggerate. Some cable ties have breaking strengths of 250 pounds or more. Just don’t limit yourself to the little 4" ties. Someone already paraphrased one of my favorite aphorisms: Cable ties are the duct tape of robotics.
Last year, our wiring guy used over 30 zipties on our 18 inch square electronics board, plus another 20 elsewhere for other wires
our teacher now keeps the zip ties locked in the back room
Sure. You are even allowed to use zip ties to hold you cable ties down to your bar locks.
Including attaching the chain to the goals. (See document GE-10062 in the game specific drawings found here)
At the Manchester kickoff, each of the four goals had broken zip ties and chain dangling over the goal after having the ball thrown at them a few times. This changed the ball’s reaction to hitting the chain pretty drastically.
Our school’s TSA decided to take an interest in our Vex robots…
Their robot was held together with pure zip ties. Everything above the drive train area was zip-tied.