Acrylic robot chassis and drone frames

Where acrylic works well

For a robot that drives around a floor or table, acrylic does almost everything you need. It's stiff, it cuts precisely, so motor mounts and sensor holes land where you drew them, and clear plates let students see every wire. Changing the design means changing a file, not retooling. That makes it popular for:

• Two-plate chassis for classroom and competition robots with gear motors and a caster
• Line followers, maze solvers, and sumo-style bots for beginners
• Desktop robot arms and pan-tilt camera mounts with small servos
• Kit parts for workshops, where a dozen identical chassis need to be cut at once
• Prototype frames to check fit and layout before committing to carbon fiber or metal

Where acrylic is the wrong choice

Be honest with yourself about crashes. Acrylic is far tougher than glass, but it fails by cracking, usually from a screw hole or an inside corner. A quadcopter that clips a tree or lands hard will snap an acrylic arm.

• Racing and freestyle drones: carbon fiber. It's lighter and much stiffer for its weight, and it's what the hobby uses for good reason.
• Combat robots and bots that get dropped: polycarbonate, which bends rather than breaks and has roughly 30 times acrylic's impact strength.
• Drones, still useful in acrylic: a prototype frame to check motor spacing and wiring on the bench, top covers and camera guards that aren't load paths, landing gear test pieces, and display stands for the finished build.

See acrylic vs polycarbonate for the trade-offs.

What thickness to choose

Two plates joined by standoffs make a far stiffer frame than one thick plate, and they give you two decks: motors and battery below, controller and sensors above.

Design tips that prevent cracks

• Round every inside corner with at least a 1/16 in. radius. Sharp inside corners are where cracks start.
• Keep holes away from edges: at least 1.5 times the hole diameter, edge to hole edge.
• Use washers or nylon spacers under screw heads, and stop tightening when snug. Overtightened screws crack acrylic more than crashes do.
• Avoid threadlocker on screws that go through acrylic. Many contain solvents that cause crazing.
• Add a grid of mounting holes, for example 1/8 in. holes on a 1/2 in. pitch, so students can move sensors without redrilling.
• Use tabs and slots for vertical brackets so they line up square. Tab-and-slot design for acrylic.

How we make it

We laser cut chassis plates with clean, glossy edges, and drill or tap holes where you need threads (tapped holes need 1/4 in. or thicker). A bent 90° bracket from one piece can replace two parts and screws; we line bend acrylic up to 1/4 in. Send your plate drawings through upload a drawing, or describe your robot and we'll suggest a layout.

Questions