Jeremy,
The only rule thing in Section 5 that indirectly addresses how the use of string might be illegal is:
<R11> Mechanisms or components that present an obvious risk of entanglement are not allowed.
So, if you do not violate that rule, or any other rule, and you meet the parts flowchart, then it sounds like you are fine.
Um... but... "i've been working on a part of our robot, a ball basket, for several weeks now"... hopefully that means conceptualizing and prototyping... the real part to be built at your next regional. Reminder:
Excerpt from <R09>:
• During the six week period following Kickoff: You may fabricate spare parts for replacement purposes of items on your robot as long as they are exact replacements for parts on the robot you shipped to the event. They must be brought to the event in a completely disassembled state as individual components (no bolt-on assemblies).
•
At Events: Teams are allowed to repair, modify or upgrade their competition robots while participating in a FRC event. They may do so only during the period starting with the opening of the Pit area on Thursday and ending at 4:00PM on Saturday. Work may be done on-site in the Pit or at any facility made available to all teams at the event, e.g., in a team’s repair trailer or a local team’s shop offered to all teams to use.
Good luck with your basket! (Kevlar? Guess we might have to say that its a bulletproof design?)
Aidan