[EricH]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

Perhaps in an "excess of caution", 3946 has considered any cuts that we'd made other than directly across a piece of stock, whether wood, aluminum, wire, or tubing (and that, if it was to a specific length) in a part prior to the competition event to to constitute a manufactured part. Where is this "trim for transport" rule? I've searched the 2015 rules, and this phrase does not appear. All occurrences of "transport" refer to "TRANSPORT CONFIGURATION" or transportation of the robot to the venue. The only occurrence of "trim" concerns the input leads of motors, servos, and solenoids. I don't plan to search for "for".

The way we understand the rule, we'd have to pre-cut to (perhaps) 5 7/8" before competition, then cut down to 5" and to length during competition in order for a bumper segment not to count as a "manufactured part". Doable, but less than ideal.

It's an interpretation of a rule--but it's obsolete*. (My bad on that one.)

On the other hand... it needs some revisiting (Frank et. all, if you're reading this...). I believe that your cutting to 5 7/8" would also cause that plywood to be counted as a Fabricated Item, and that would naturally cause some problems. This would also apply to stock aluminum, PVC, and pretty much anything else that is in a different dimension than it came from the supplier. (So... anybody want to see how unsafe transporting large plywood scraps into the venue is? No? Anybody want to enforce that rule? Yeah. Right.)


*There used to be a third category of material in addition to COTS and Fabricated. "Raw" material referred to material as it came from the supplier, with just enough cuts to get it into a more transportable form--e.g. cutting an aluminum tube to two 10' pieces instead of one 20' one--which many places will do anyway--or ripping plywood in half.