Hello. We’re a rookie team and we are trying to come up with different ways to help express our team spirit at larger events and such. We were specifically trying to find out what kind of button maker we might be able to get or should we just buy them. If anyone has a suggestion relating to this thatd be great. We really want to try to have buttons so we can hand them out at any event we go to!
I would suggest reaching out to another FIRST team near you with a button maker, as they are generally very expensive. The Fembots have this one and it works wonderfully.
We use affordablebuttons.com and they always do a great job. The price goes down dramatically when you buy a large quantity. Have a great rookie year and welcome to FRC.
We order ours online 
i’ll give you the website when i find it
Hi,
Our County Extension Office has this maker. It’s only $30 & it works really well. I’ve used it 2x in the past for 2 seasons of FLL button making. Here is the link to order more button sets. This is the cheaper way to go & if you do it right, they are almost as good as the expensive buttons. We are going this route this year with our team.
Hope this helps!
-David
We have two different button makers from two different companies and Dr. Dons is definitely my favorite. We also use the button makers for fundraising. But ask around and see if you can use another teams machine first. 2584 would gladly help anyone in the San Fernando Valley out with button making.
If you decide on a button maker and it is badge-a-minit. fabutton.com sells badge-a-minit parts much cheaper.
We have this one…
http://www.buybuttonparts.com/2-1-4-Professional-Button-Maker.html
and it works very well (although it jams when someone who should know better inadvertently puts two of the dome-shaped pieces in at one time, and is very hard to open back up - so don’t do that!)
I know some teams get their buttons made for them, but our team really enjoys designing buttons on the fly and even making them at the competitions…it is a way to keep everyone constructively busy when one or two of your “sub-teams” have something to do. Last year we started “customizing” a simple pattern we made at the competition, and as a result everyone wanted their own special design…it was quite a hit.