[Jon Stratis]

I think a band saw is key and should be the first purchase. Sure, you can cut whatever it is using hand tools... but it'll be 1000 times faster with a band saw!

After that, I would go for a Mill. We got both a mill and a lathe this year, and the mill was used much, much more. It's awesome for cutting slots in motor mounts, allowing easy chain tension adjustment, as well as making a variety of items.

A Lathe can be a great tool to have as well. We used ours this year to make several shaft couplers, which resulted in easy mounting for our potentiometers.

If you have the room, getting a break could be really useful - the ability to precisely bend aluminum (and plexiglass) as we need is something we've used on every robot for years. It's great for making brackets, boxes, and pans that drop down below the frame for the bottom of the robot.