Worst Deals in FIRST Choice

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Oh, you mean the beam couplers. Sorry.

You can make a straight coupler, but it'd be a lot of work to get a helical beam coupler made in shop.

There are knock off brand ones on ebay and amazon for cheaper. A lot of diy CNC suppliers stock them as well.

They're not real commonly used in FRC, the size and weight are somewhat prohibitive.

You can get $6 beam couplers with asymmetric shaft sizes from China, you just have to wait about 3 - 4 weeks

They felt to have about the same strength and deformation-resistance as the $40 ones I had used before, but that doesn't really say much.

[nathannfm]

I like how you can buy a bag of IGUS products "fc15-102" for 10 credits, or you can buy each of the individual components for 5 or 10 credits...

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by asid61

Ideally I'd just buy a longer shaft.

Generally shaft couplers are not used to make the shaft longer, but to facilitate assembly and disassembly.

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

You can make a straight coupler, but it'd be a lot of work to get a helical beam coupler made in shop.

...but quite cool if you had that capability.

Things seem reasonably 'priced' this year, more so than before. I find the pneumatic compo0nents to be good bargains: priced out fittings, tubing or valves lately? And an old-style PDB for an off-season or practice bot is a nice bargain.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Things seem reasonably 'priced' this year, more so than before. I find the pneumatic compo0nents to be good bargains: priced out fittings, tubing or valves lately? And an old-style PDB for an off-season or practice bot is a nice bargain.

I agree that the prices went to a much more acceptable level for most items. Pneumatics last year were just crazy under valued, as the fitting bag was about 10x cheaper last year. I'm all in on the old control system parts, might not help for the 2015 build season but there are 10 other months in the year for teams to find uses for them.

I'm confused a little by the linear v-groove track since the lengths seem small and the bearings aren't also available. I think it would be hard for teams to put it to good use but maybe I'm missing something.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

I'm confused a little by the linear v-groove track since the lengths seem small and the bearings aren't also available.

The appear to be cutoffs, which Bishop Wisecarver would otherwise sell for scrap. Better to donate them (which can be written off at full value) I suppose.

But I agree: Too short for much value. I'd make a nice CNC router, but 16" of steel track doesn't help.