Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaxom
From the glossary:
I submit that when you have "attached COTS items" or you take a piece off an older robot you don't have raw materials. Even if your arm is nothing but a straight piece of 80/20 you probably cut it from a longer piece of stock, and the word "cut" is in the definition.
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I think you are reading way too much into this. If I bought a 20' piece of 1" angle last year, and cut 1 foot of off of it to make a robot part, then by your definition, the other 19' would be off limits for this year.
Also by your definition, if I had a piece of 8020 that was 24" long on my last years robot, that I then disassembled and put in the parts bin, I couldn't cut a 9" piece off of it and use it this years bot.
Pardon my bluntness, but that is the most ridiculous interpretation of the rules I have yet seen.
Many of the components of every robot I have been associated with were made from scrap parts and pieces of material from the company where I work. They had been previously cut, drilled or otherwise modified to be a part of something else. After the team further cut, shaped and modified them, they became robot parts. In the following years, as long as the part is modified from its condition as used in the previous robot, it is legal for this years robot.
There is no rule that describes "raw material" as brand new, never cut or modified material. If I use a piece of 1" angle, and apply manufacturing processes to it to make it a part of my robot, its history has no bearing on its legality as a robot part. There is no magic that is imbued into the metal when it is made into a robot part. I get no advantage from using that part unless I use it in the same exact configuration as it was used in a previous robot.