Low sponsorship, but ok money

[millerm277]

Any suggestion on how to approach or find industrial supply or metal for our needs?

I know Knott's (They make 80/20, among other things) sponsors some FIRST teams (including us), you might want to see if they'd be willing to sponsor you in some way.

Also, and a bit aside, I noticed a lot of people talking about CNC mills; we would not have the finances for a good CNC mill unless we didn't build a robot for a year. Is it normal for teams to get one?

Our school does the Project Lead The Way engineering courses, and as part of it, bought a small Intelitek CNC, and we use it occasionally for parts. In reality though, it isn't really necessary, it just saves use a bit of time on the really tedious things, we wind up making most things on an old manual Bridgeport (but well-maintained) and two 40-year old South Bend lathes we got to keep when they got rid of metal shop.