Aluminium

**Lord Bob** · 6th October 2010, 18:23

Hi
I'm in the process of building my first featherweight and i would like to know how i would connect aluminium together ( Neither me or my dad can weld)

**typhoon_driver** · 6th October 2010, 18:26

make brackets and bolt it together

**Lord Bob** · 6th October 2010, 18:31

thanks a lot, i will do that

**PJ-27** · 6th October 2010, 19:10

I once made a chassis out of ali and use rivets to hold it together. DO NOT DO THIS! They are rather brittle, and you can't remove them without drilling them out, so yeh buts bolts and ali angle seem the best bet!

**RogueTwoRobots** · 7th October 2010, 15:37

Pop rivets were used by Rex Garrod in his featherweight robot build guide and I used them on my first build based on that, but in today's featherweight environment they just wouldn't cut the mustard. Using bolts with pieces of aluminium angle can be a bit fiddly but it will be more robust and only requires the use of a drill.

**gizz** · 7th November 2010, 13:32

Lending the thread for a question.

Im about to tap some hweel hubs for my FW with 3/8-24 UNF tap. As far as i know this is the one used on axles coming out from the screwdriver gearbox.
However is it possible to drill will bits measured in milimeters for the 3/8 tap? Tried 8,0 on plastics and it was decent.
Tried looking on the net but I only find templates showing the inch scale drills for tapping.
I could try and get hold of inch sized drills but got plenty of mm sizes so figured I didn't have to.

**daliad100** · 7th November 2010, 14:08

Well the drills diameter is about 8.43mm but an 8.4mm hole means risking tap breakage and an 8.5mm hole will make for loose threads which can be solved with loctite but will make it difficult to get the wheels off.

I would personally go for the undersized drill bit and hope that the diameters are close enough that the tap doesn't break.

**craig_colliass** · 7th November 2010, 14:37

My old ZEUS book recommends 8.5mm for this thread and 8.4mm as an alternative. Take your time, turn the tap 2/3 turn and back 1/2 turn to cut the swarf you should be fine.