Plastic Materials

We used sintra to make a robot frame:

I use Sintra for all my robots lately. Very easy to work with (drills easily, cuts best with a router) and no static problems. It is both strong and light. Sintra also paints quite easily. It can also be formed using a heat gun, and cemented with pvc cement available from any hardware store. 1/4" Sintra is widely available and cheap.

On largish robots you may find that Sintra, like most plastics, may sag under the weight of batteries or other heavy items, in which case you will either need to use a very thick piece (which can be expensive) or reinforce it with plywood or aluminum framing. For smaller robots, you should not see a problem. Definitely one of my favorite materials.

There are a lot of nice things about it as indicated by the previous posters.

But, because of the expanded foam core, it's not really rugged and it doesn't work too well if you want to secure fasteners directly into the material.

DOC

Eh? I do this all the time without problems. Of course, I'm talking basic indoor, low speed use. I don't think I'd go with it if the robot is expected to take serious abuse.