What happens to the broken parts after competitions?

[Greg Needel]

I was thinking about this after the philly regional and I saw a huge box of motors, gear boxes, etc. and I wonder what happens to the stuff....does it become trash? go back the company? the reason I was wondering is because I know that a lot of teams think that things like gear boxes are completely destroyed when in fact they can be fixed (especially with parts from multiple "broken" ones. I would love to see FIRST give the stuff out so that people/ teams that can repair the stuff and would like spares could have them...opinions?

[ZACH P.]

I think that that is a great idea. They would be usefull not only as spares, but also as parts for robots for off-season competitions, for totally different comprtitions, or for various independent projects. The variety of stuffs that FIRST supplies are reallly pretty awesome for robot building. The kind of stuff (especially motors) that FIRST supplies are in a lot of ways ideal for robotics, and such motors would be hard to find independently.

[The Lucas]

That stuff gets used by bored volunteers at the spare parts table to build elaborate structures. A pyramid was built with all the dead Drill motors (about 20). All sorts of screw and sheet metal monuments were built. Ducky almost put an entire blue light cover back together from shattered pieces. I offered her some epoxy to complete the job but she didnt want to live with the fumes.

However, I dont know what happens to these parts after we are done with them. I think the motors go back to their respective companies. Some companies may rebuild the motors or gear boxes if it is cost effective.

[Andy A.]

Use them to make trophies for off season comps!

Last year I got to make the trophies for Rally in the Valley. They were very pretty, but about 30 hours of time on the drill press kinda wears thin. So this year, its just dead components epoxied on what ever chunks of wood I find around the shop.

Not as pretty, but just as interesting, if you ask me...

-Andy A.

[Dave_222]

HEHEHE that was our light cover we went through 3 light covers in philly.