[gren737]

[quote=
At the same time, I doubt anyone wants to get to a point where teams have to manufacture their own gears, sprockets, and wheels (talk about a high-resource advantage there, you'd need C&C or laser cutting just to get out the door).
/QUOTE]

FIRST moved past this a long long time ago. Yes there was a time when you could not buy metal sprockets or gears and if you wanted to use them you had to make your own. I think a couple came in the kit for the drivetrain and that was it. Small Parts Inc was the only catalog you could purchase parts from and there was an absurdly low limit like $400 total or something close.

While I'm not a big fan of ready made bolt on FIRST parts, like drivetrains, shifters etc. I most certainly do not want to go back to the days of making sprockets again either. And no, you don't need a cnc or a laser jet to do that, a bridgeport and prototrac will do nicely.

I think the discussion here is the difference between standard off the shelf parts that you can buy that weren't designed for a FIRST robot vs. ones that were designed specifically for a FIRST robot.

but...just wanted to point out the fact, COTS items have not always been allowed.