[Monty Python]

Thanks RoboMom, I had no idea NEMO had such extensive documentation (I just finished going through the links).

Thanks to everyone else who commented and offered advice as well, this has been such a big help to my team.

We're lucky in that we do have a fair amount of tools (drills, a bandsaw, a press, a dremel, etc.) and we would only need travel costs for the championship (if we were to make it there). It seems like a budget of 15-20 thousand dollars would be ideal based on the comments, meaning that we should aim for 20 thousand. Thanks again for all of your help!