Is there anything that I can do to keep my standoffs on? It just seems like this piece always comes off with friction.
Get a big 3rd party spanner that is properly sized to fit the standoff or a good adjustable crescent (the Vex spanner just rounds off the standoff far too easily.) This should let you get it properly tight on one side, this should be the side that is hardest to get to once the robot is assembled so you don’t need to tighten it again.
For the other side you could experiment with putting a nylon washer under the screw head before tightening it with a hex key? It might work like a spring washer, keeping it tight. Also make sure you use a reasonably long screw, make sure it has a good head, and you have good keys to tighten it properly.
But the best solution is to not use standoffs where you have other options, if an aluminium c-channel can bridge a gap just as well without getting in the way, then that is much better because you can tighten all the nuts with just a normal Vex spanner.
Loc Tite the screw seems to help a ton.
Vibration will knock stand offs loose and there is only one screw in the end. So reducing that ability to become unscrewed with washers and loc tite can help a bit. Reducing the vibration root cause helps more but is many times not possible.
Screwing it in really tight can help too. Switching to cap head screws can give you a bit more screwing in torque so it does not slip out as much ruining the screw.
Whenever we use standoffs we put a nylock on the bolt first and tighten it down. This works very well and is an easy fix. It changes your spacing a little, but it’s well worth it.
Thanks. It’s so frustrating to build a robot and then see it break apart after awhile.