Mystery Sprockets

[Kims Robot]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Some have already commented that they are upset they cannot just purchase the exact part they need and bolt it on their robot. What ever happened to the idea that part of the challenge (and part of the fun) of FIRST was creating your own design out of raw materials? If we do nothing but rely on bolt-on solutions, then we are largely relying on the engineering efforts of others, and doing little true engineering of our own. And that, I submit, lessens the experience for all involved.

The real world does not go together like an Erector set. FIRST robots should not either.

I realize that part of my inspiration was getting my hands dirty on the mills or lathe, drilling holes etc. Personally, I hope we never see the day that you can just bolt together an arm from XYZ company, a drivetrain from ABC company, and a ball collector from DEF company. However, I am a systems engineer, and a lot of our stuff is short turn around, just like FIRST. When you work in those conditions and you work in a HS shop that in total has a band saw, a table saw and a drill press, you look for the way to spend more time on certain parts of the design while taking shortcuts on others. To me, milling out a sprocket is not that exciting, and I would bet that in 80% of the teams, the kids dont do that (its probably sent to the sponsor, to other teams or anything of the like). So whats the difference if you find a resource to buy it from (wisely using your time like a systems engineer would) or you send it off to your sponsor to do for you? Its the same to the kids... but maybe they learn or get inspired by designing in inventor, or putting the transmissions together or putting on the chain.

The entire reason FIRST gave us the "kitbot" in my understanding is so that the disadvantaged teams would be able to make more than just a box that sat on the floor. They could focus more on arm design than just making something that could move around the field. I dont see how buying a sprocket with holes takes away from the design process. If Dean really wants a FIRST team in every school, and everyone has to do their own broaching or steel drilling, he had better buy a full machine shop for every school, or FIRST needs to allow more "system" style designs.

But anyways, sorry Im a bit off topic, although I think the question has already been answered. The IFI sprockets are probably closest. We use McMaster Carr to buy ours and then add broaches or keyholes (at our sponsors place). I think Ben's idea is the best... if you can find a team near you willing to help, or even one that would be willing to overnight parts they did for you, that would probably be the easiest if you dont have the machining resources.