[Jon Jack]

To cut down on maintenance time, we retread our practice robot wheels before every competition. This way when it comes time to replace a wheel we can simply take off a wheel and put a practice robot wheel on with the new tread. This way the time can be taken to remove the old tread and attach the new tread properly, without the pressure of getting it done before our next match.

After making custom wheels the past three seasons, I've got to say that outside of the potential weight savings it's not worth it. In 2007, I think I calculated it to have taken us almost 40 man hours to make 18 wheels. This year it took us just as long to make 28 wheels. All the while there are the machines and the students and mentors operating those machines that are tied up. That's a lot of time allocated to wheels just to save a few ounces and a few dollars.

I'm pretty sure we won't be making our own wheels again this year, as long as the new AndyMark wheels look like a viable option. By spending a couple hundred dollars we can have all the wheels we'll need, ready to go out of the box. Plus it frees up an extra 40 hours of machine and student/mentor time.