Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Schaddelee
I understand safty has to be a concern ,but I truly dont believe the bandsaw is the biggest safty problem in the pits.I would argue that more accidents are from people try to hurry, the pits being to cramp and people not using proper tools.
jim schadelee
team 107
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*emphasis my own*
I would like to bring some attention to this. This is a good point. What if a bandsaw, grinder or mini-mill IS the proper tool (this is probably very likely). Will teams go stand in line for 45 minutes with their robot out of commission, waiting to get it fixed by an "official" machine shop? No. They will find another method, an IMPROPER tool for the job.
This is not only less safe, it is teaching bad safety and engineering practices: "If you don't have the right tool, don't wait or go someplace else to find it, use the WRONG one." Tell me, is this REALLY what we want to be teaching our students?
I also can't agree more with the comments stating how this ruling will hurt rookie and struggling teams more than it hurts the successful ones. Which teams are more likely to have poorly designed parts that fail? Which teams are likely not to have made spares?
I came from a team that had been in this situation. I can't count how many times we went to other teams' pits to use their band saw or drill press because we had to make a quick-fix part due to a poor design.
Last year we had an extremely temperamental transmission that ended up needing some welding. We sat out of 2 matches (on our alliance partners' requests) to get it fixed by the machine shop. If all teams had to go to the machine shop for their little fixes, I think it's no exaggeration that we would have been waiting almost all day.
I am upset about this ruling, but I am still waiting for more insight from those higher up. As unlikely as it may be, I have not disregarded the possibility that FIRST does have a good reason for this. I also support the idea of finding out exactly what constitutes a "FIRST Approved Machine Shop", and if we might be able to have 3 or 4 of these approved shops at each competition.