What stock to store for mill/lathe work?

[Jon Stratis]

For the lathe:
- Material to make spacers (PVC pipe works great!)
- Material to make standoffs

For the mill:
- solid aluminum stock (bar and plate of various thickness)
- Other normal aluminum stock your team normally uses


For our situation, it's really not an issue to stop by a local Discount Steel and get whatever we need... and once we get it, we have plenty left over in stock. We've found for our team that having a mill and lathe isn't about the materials you have for it - just about everything we've used on it is stuff we already had sitting around. It's about the increased capabilities it gives you in shaping those materials perfectly or consistently for the robot (for example, it's a lot easier to make 4 standoffs that are all the same length using a mill or lathe than it is to do so with a band saw).