[R.C.]

Originally Posted by Cory

Craig, I'm not sure what you're referring to. You can make a hubbed sprocket out of the same size barstock as a non-hubbed sprocket.

As to whether or not I'd be interested-sure, in a year or two.

I mean no offense to whoever would be making these, but it's too much to rely on a party that is a quantity unknown to FIRST. We have no idea if this guy can handle hundreds (or thousands) of parts in a matter of a week or two. We don't know if he can guarantee that every part from every batch will meet a consistent quality level (precision, accuracy, fit and finish, etc). We don't know if the price will be right (and if it's custom, you're almost totally screwed if the budget rules remain the same. It would be prohibitively expensive to have to account for fair market value of the labor involved). There's too many unknowns for me to be willing to plan my drivetrain around the expectation that these components can be purchased COTS.

There's a lot of thought and planning that needs to go into something like this. RC, I would encourage you to talk to Andy or Mark and they could fill you in on how much work it is. I'm just worried that your sponsor may think he's going to be doing a couple parts here and there and not really understand the magnitude of such an undertaking. He may not realize that he could be on the hook for 1,000 parts that teams will be expecting to show up at their door within a week from the time they place the order.

Just with the knowledge of the processes involved, you could tie up a large sized shop for most of the 6 weeks fabricating all the various sizes of gears and sprockets. More, depending on the machines they have.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, but I think you should step back and take a look at the big picture, or find someone who can help you do so. It would be a shame for teams to be relying on this venture, and have it fold mid season because it turned out to be way harder than expected.

Thanks Cory, I won't be the one doing it. He wanted feedback and this will help him make a decision. I am just relaying the messages from everyone here to him.

Thatz all Cory. I do understand the magnitude of this and it is up to him how he handles it. I will talk to Andy about this. Thanks for the Advice Cory.