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point taken Martin
Man you win the award for bringing up the subject that gets so heated every year. I probably should stop posting to this thread since after evey post I get ripped on by more students the latest being a 'fairy machinist' which I think is totally inappropriate but ohh well. Truth is all of the engineers on my team are electrical and most of us have little or no machining in our backround, ESPECIALLY in our daily jobs. I have to believe there are many many engineers out there the same. Machining this thing in my mind doesn't teach a whole lot about engineering. Students and Engineers can both machine out a crappy design to perfection I am sure. I am not qualified to teach anyone machining, if you want to know how to program a framing assembly line of a bodyshop that build Chevy Trailblazers and Envoys then I can help you (We also play with robots that can wreck anything including ANY battlebot that ever existed, cars, walls you name it). The true 'engineering' of this project comes in the design. If you want to be a professional machinist than you have every right to be upset that some engineers are taking your future job. The only reason I help machine on this thing is to learn how to run the machines from the 'master' machinists in the lab (who actually do this kind of thing for their real jobs but leave at 3:00 before the students even get there?!) so that I can build a sweet battlebot for next year (not for FIRST). So I totally agree that learning machining is really cool, but for only SOME people. Many people don't want to stand in front of a mill and crank a handle for 6 hours or sit in front of a lathe and get cutting fluid all over their clothes. Trust me I know alot of them. For the record, our robot was built completely on a regular Bridgeport (non-CNC) mill (shared by three teams) that it sounds like most schools/teams have access to, so we have No advantage over your team.
The biggest problem with this thread and many of the members out there that have this us vs. them mentality is that you appear to be highly motivated, skilled hands on type individuals. Keep in mind that not all of your peers share the exact same traits. Some don't like hands on, some may not be as motivated or want to dedicate as much time, some may have realized that they don't even want to be in engineering.
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