Just a general discussion to discuss the properties of Steel and Aluminum. Which is overall the best to use, based on pros and cons? Post your thoughts here! List the pros and cons like so:
Pros:
1.
2.
3. etc.
Cons
1.
2.
3. etc.
Which one do you think is better? Me personally, Aluminum. But I’ll leave it to the forum to list the pros and cons.
I mean, this topic really doesn’t need to exist. there is absolutely no contest, aluminum is superior. its a fraction of the weight, and if you build well you can make it just as strong as steel.
as for that, it’s hard, but not impossible. building as light as possible is really important, only use structure where you need to, and never 5 wides. rubber bands are your best friends with steel lifts and mechanisms like that, in theory you should be able to completely counter gravity and the weight of the lift/mechanism itself.
Yeah. And if you have partial steel and partial aluminum, use the steel for the base only. And use half cuts on lifts.
Also, traybots will probably be better for people stuck with steel. Because they’re generally slightly lighter than lift bots in my experience, and certainly lighter than dr4b trays.
some years steel isn’t that bad, like turning point, a steel bot could actually be really competitive, cause 4m drive is plenty to cart around a steel bot, and you really didn’t need to lift things, but this year is less friendly to steel, because you do need to lift things. even trays have a hard time if their made of steel. itz was the worst for steel bots tbh.
We used steel on our arms just because we ran out of aluminum. A single 35 hole steel C channel is only slightly heavier than two 35 hole Aluminum C channels but two Aluminum C channels have much more strength. So pretty much with steel, it’s heavier and less strong for the weight of equal aluminum.