Fabricated Items same as COTS

[bigbeezy]

With companies now supplying items like pre-manufactured gusset plates (VEX), a team with sufficient funds could buy plenty of spare brackets and have that not count toward their Withholding Allowance. At about $2.50 per piece (or more plus shipping) this can be really expensive but for well funded teams its not that big of a deal. Our team is fortunate to have a sponsor that provides time for us to use their waterjet, all we have to do is provide sheets of material. So very quickly and cost effectively we can have the exact same brackets, however these are now Fabricated Items.

I’m not trying to argue COTS vs Fabricated; that seems clear in this situation. However, is there possibly a way that FIRST can tweak the wording or perhaps make a new category where “like-COTS” components are not counted in the Withholding Allowance? I don’t mean this to be a way around the Withholding Allowance, personally I think 30 pounds is more than enough. We use our premade/scrap brackets like these to not only fix our bot but other team’s as well at competition. We have an entire box of old brackets that others could use but would qualify as "Fabricated Items." Could a “Community Parts Allowance” be made so that teams can legally bring Fabricated Items and not worry about burning through their Withholding Allowance?