[JamesCH95]

WHATEVER YOU DO: Get good CAM software, like MasterCAM, and get GWizard to do your feeds/speeds calculations. GWizard is pure freakin' magic, I cut down a part program on my router from 16 minutes to less than 5 minutes after using GWizard.

This year we (95) have made great use of two machines in conjunction: a CNC plasma table and a CNC knee mill (a ProtoTrak).

The CNC plasma cutter can dice up anything from 1/32in sheet to 1/4in plate (and more) with minimal effort and is a very safe machine to use in the grand scheme of things. We cut out virtually all of the major components on our robot this year with our plasma cutter which resulted in an extraordinarily fast fabrication time.

We use the Prototrak's CNC functions to add fine features into blanks cut out with the plasma cutter. We also use it as a manual mill if we're only making a few parts. It ain't no HAAS, but it works just fine for everything we want it to.

We've also started using a Prototrak CNC lathe, manual mode only for now. It is quite nice, easy to use, and we've had great results so far. Before next season we hope to learn how to use it's CNC functions.

I (personally) have started to become proficient with my CNC router in almost anything from wood to aluminum. A CNC router has advantages like low cost, fantastically large work envelop, and pretty good accuracy (better than a plasma cutter, worse than a CNC mill). I could easily see a team using a CNC router to make virtually all of their robot parts.

These are what I have experience with and thus are what I'm suggesting for your consideration. Keep in mind that you're not making a full-time fab shop, you likely don't need every machine to be capable of running continuously for the next 10 years. I would tend to give a little more weight to 'total shop capabilities' over 'ultimate machine durability'.