pic: 973 finished parts
 

Re: pic: 973 finished parts
 

Why couldn't that have been done that with manual equipment? Looks pretty simple. You could have just taken your zero at one end, machined the two holes, and then taken another zero at the other end and machined the other hole.

Thats how I machined our drivetrain.... It was actually longer than the mill! :yikes:

Re: pic: 973 finished parts
 

Actually if you took the zero at one end and then set the other end as your zero when done with the first side you are relying on the fact that your piece is to exact length, which in most cases is not too critical but if they are saying the tolerances are tight than you probably want to just indicate off a hole on the first side you did and work off of that...... Are these part of the frame?

Re: pic: 973 finished parts
 

They look like upright supports for a pivoting arm -- and in that case, you'd want the holes on opposite ends to be in the same position relative to one another, not the end of part. Everything is probably zeroed to the right side of the piece so that, when mounted on the robot, the pivot holes (leftmost in the image) align.

Re: pic: 973 finished parts
 

All of the holes are in tolerance to each other, and it is crucial to what and they way we are doing it to know that; If you are familiar with a certain team, and have seen our teaser, it is should be rather obvious ;) .

Re: pic: 973 finished parts
 

I understand.:D Yes, those holes are critical, and yes, I think they would run dimensions from the right side.

Re: pic: 973 finished parts
 

Sigh. I dream of the day when our team is able to make parts that have the word "precision" in them! For now we have our trusty hack saw and drill. If the parts don't align keep drilling until they do! We try to account for a certain amount of "slop" in all of our designs :D

One day though....CAD...lathe...CNC....ahhh.