Bimba wait time

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Chris_Elston

Automation Direct...

Ships SAME DAY. For us, 2 days UPS GROUND from GA.

http://www.automationdirect.com/adc/...ers_(A-Series)

Hhm, I'm wondering if it is the "made to order" cylinders from Bimba that take a long time to ship. AD there looks to have a bunch of stock cylinders that, if they don't have to produce them after you make the order, could ship out a lot faster. Maybe Bimba's benefit is that you can get nearly any size from them, but you have to wait?

[Tom Line]

Last year, we ordered cylinders. The 'free' ones shipped from Mexico and took something like 3 weeks. The purchased ones shipped from Chicago and we had them in just a couple days. The cylinders were the same.

[Gary Dillard]

I just called and heard back from Bimba, we ordered 1/15 and they hope to ship from Mexico tomorrow (1/30), no delivery information. We need spares anyway so I guess I'll go ahead and order a couple from AD so we can finish assembly.

[snoman]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

Last year, we ordered cylinders. The 'free' ones shipped from Mexico and took something like 3 weeks. The purchased ones shipped from Chicago and we had them in just a couple days. The cylinders were the same.

same thing for us. supposed to be here tomorrow i am tracking them with UPS on my phone

[Monochron]

For what it's worth, I ordered Automation Direct cylinders yesterday and they will be arriving tomorrow. The offer free 2-day shipping on any orders over $49 and have a fairly reasonable selection: http://www.automationdirect.com/adc/...ders_(A-Series) 7/16" bore up to 2" bore. Bimba or McMaster would probably have more selection, but these met our needs this year and were much more inexpensive (around $60 for a 2" bore 4" stroke).

[waialua359]

The Bimba donation is one of the best donations FRC teams have been able to get for a long time, IMO.
The inherent problem though is they are costly to stockpile and until teams start build season and designing their robots, its very hard to pre-determine what you need.
We've had this issue for years and would often ask to trade other teams for extra Bimba cylinders in the past.
The easiest solution for us as a veteran team was to strip it off an old robot and put back the cylinder at a later time.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Monochron

For what it's worth, I ordered Automation Direct cylinders yesterday and they will be arriving tomorrow. The offer free 2-day shipping on any orders over $49 and have a fairly reasonable selection: http://www.automationdirect.com/adc/...ders_(A-Series) 7/16" bore up to 2" bore. Bimba or McMaster would probably have more selection, but these met our needs this year and were much more inexpensive (around $60 for a 2" bore 4" stroke).

Broken link

[Christopher149]

Originally Posted by Caleb Sykes

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Add a close paren at the end: link

[Gary Dillard]

We never did receive our Bimba cylinders, I guess I'll call them again.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Gary Dillard

We never did receive our Bimba cylinders, I guess I'll call them again.

We just got ours on Friday, and I placed the order on the 22nd of January, three and a half weeks ago.

[tStano]

R 4.1:
A VENDOR is a legitimate business source for COTS items that satisfies all of the following criteria:
C. must be able to ship any general (i.e., non-FIRST unique) product within five business days of receiving a valid purchase request. It is recognized that certain unusual circumstances (such as 1,000 FIRST Teams all ordering the same part at once from the same VENDOR) may cause atypical delays in shipping due to backorders for even the largest VENDORs. Such delays due to higher-than normal order rates are excused.
D. should maintain sufficient stock or production capability to fill Teams’ orders within a reasonable period during the season (less than 1 week). (Note that this criterion may not apply to custom-built items from a source that is both a VENDOR and a fabricator. For example, a VENDOR may sell flexible belting that the Team wishes to procure to use as treads on their drive system. The VENDOR cuts the belting to a custom length from standard shelf stock that is typically available, welds it into a loop to make a tread, and ships it to a Team. The fabrication of the tread takes the VENDOR two weeks. This would be considered a FABRICATED ITEM, and the two weeks ship time is acceptable.) Alternately, the Team may decide to fabricate the treads themselves. To satisfy this criterion, the VENDOR would just have to ship a length of belting from shelf stock (i.e. a COTS item) to the Team within five business days and leave the welding of the cuts to the Team.)

[Blue Box]The intent of this definition it to be as inclusive as possible to permit access to all legitimate sources, while preventing ad hoc organizations from providing special-purpose products to a limited subset of Teams in an attempt to circumvent the cost accounting rules. FIRST desires to permit Teams to have the broadest choice of legitimate sources possible, and to obtain COTS items from the sources that provide them with the best prices and level of service available. Teams also need to protect against long delays in availability of parts that will impact their ability to complete their ROBOT. The FRC build season is brief, so the VENDOR must be able to get their product, particularly FIRST unique items, to a Team in a timely manner.
[/Blue Box]

I find this interesting. Bimba takes more than 2 weeks to ship(they're taking over 3 on our cylinders), so that appears to be "unacceptable" even if they have to custom make the part. Also, if the manufacturer is custom-making a part for a team, it appears to be a "manufactured item" so it might not be exempt from withholding. This rule appears to state that any cylinders bimba has to make custom and by consequence, have not yet shipped, are part of your witholding allowance. It also might be that they are totally illegal.

I don't think they fit under the category of "a bunch of teams want to buy stuff at once" because most teams probably want slightly (or completely) different parts. Also, Bimba is a pretty big company, so FIRST orders can't be much "higher than normal"

However, this doesn't really fit with the stated intent of the rule per the blue box, I just think its funny to call bimba a non-legitimate business. Its sounds like they're some guy on the street selling pneumatic cylinders. I really believe that bimba cylinders are legal and that they aren't part of witholding.

I realize I'm probably lawyering the rules a little too hard, but on the other hand, the rules are pretty clear here.

[Christopher149]

We placed our order on Jan 28, and received them on Feb 11. Two weeks seems like pretty good turnaround (since they advertised it would be 7-10 business days). We are in Michigan. The cylinders were 1 1/2" bore, 1.5" stroke and 4" stroke.

[Gary Dillard]

Our cylinders came yesterday; just in time to save me from ordering / paying for a couple of spares - our first regional isn't until next week.

3/4" bore 12" stroke, ordered Jan 15th. Every time I called they said there were being built in Mexico - I guess they got hit with more snow days than usual this year.