[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by jman4747

1st find a good junk yard.

You can make just about anything you need for FRC on those tools but you will need stock. Something you will be doing a lot in future will be to weigh time making custom parts vs buying them. If you can get good raw material for free (hence the junk yard) it cuts down on the material costs and assuming labor is free you end up with a ~free part. If you do get a good relationship with a junk yard you should get comfortable with using steel. It's usually easier to find for free.

This goes into the main point that the more raw materials you can get donated from anywhere the more ~free parts you can make, especially simple things.

A better bet is probably to approach local metals and plastics distributors. Junk yards are unpredictable at best in what they'll have, just do to their nature, and you generally won't know too many specifics on the exact alloys you'll be getting, important information for all parts of the fabrication process. Material distributors, on the other hand, are in the business of knowing exactly what their product is and how to use it. Look for places that offer custom cutting -- these companies generally end up with scrap cutoffs which are generally too small to be easily sold, but suit the needs of FRC perfectly. The easiest donation to get is something that would've been thrown away otherwise.