[MichaelBick]

Powdercoating an anodizing can take quite a bit of time out of your schedule. This is not even considering the fact that the company may not be running your color that day. However the benefits are good(sponsors really like it and it makes the robot look a lot more professional) so we continue to do it.

The biggest thing you can do to get around these negatives is a non-powdercoated practice bot. You can do all your testing and iteration on the practice bot and you do not lose any time. You then learn your mistakes and where you need to iterate. Only after all your iteration is done do you assemble the competition robot with your new knowledge. I find that anodizing is generally done on small parts so iteration on these parts isn't as important.

For the comp bot we generally try to send stuff off to ano immediately, and send stuff off to powdercoat as soon as we have a working practice assembly(this isn't always a rigid law. Drivetrain for example is sent off immediately. Individual parts are also sent off earlier than assemblies). Bolt patterns and planning ahead on parts that you think you will want to iterate allows this to work out pretty well.