We have a 5ft x 8ft AVID cnc router that we love (big is super useful for field elements, road cases and other large projects). Ours is about $14,000 before you get into vacuum table and dust collection, but we are definitely happy we saved up for it. (We used the savings from not travelling in 2020-21).
Before we bought our router we used local laser vendors, a sponsor who’s laser had a lot of free time, and send cut send. All of them worked fine, but the local laser shop was probably the best, they gave us 8-12 hour turnaround and charged us very little to hold onto our stock and cut the parts.
Our team owns a CNC. Many teams have a ShopBot Desktop which can be cheaper. As to grants/scholarships, I would recommend checking out the Gene Haas Foundation and Google. A lot of companies offer grants only to teams within their first two years of creation, so be sure to look into those. Also, reach out to local companies. Even if they don’t provide as much support as larger companies, its still something. Good luck!
The big one that comes to mind is NASA’s rookie team and year-two grants. I wish my team would have applied to them in the early years because once you hit the veteran level, it becomes more competition. I don’t know if it’s open, but I’d check this link:
The below link is from the FIRST website. They have a section where you can filter out to rookie grants. Again, they don’t have many open in the moment. They have rookie, new veteran (year two), and veteran.
I would recommend simply looking up FRC rookie grants. There are many links I could provide, but I don’t want to clutter the page. DM me if you need more help.
Our school just opened a $30M CTE facility in January. The students have access to more equipment and machinery than I do at work. They have the following:
8x10 CNC Router
8x10 CO2 Laser
8x10 Fiber Laser
OMax Waterjet
2 x Vertical Mills
2 x Engine Lathes
Haas CNC Mill
Haas CNC Lathe
Paint Booth
Powder Coating Booth
10 x Welding Stations
2 x Stratasys 3D Printers
and pretty much any other wood and metalworking machines you can think of.
The construction class is in the midst of framing a house in the wood shop, it appears.
The facility was designed to be “future proof”. I could only dream to have had access to a fraction of these tools when I was in school. Unfortunately, the high school only has one teacher that knows how to run any of the equipment (PS - they’re hiring). I’ve really enjoyed teaching the students how to operate the manual machines and we haven’t even fired up the CNC mill or lathe yet.
The best part is that all FIRST teams are welcome to utilize our shop. Our only stipulation is that we’re not a job shop - students have to come and make the parts themselves with the guidance of one of our mentors or experienced team members. We’ve had several FTC teams outside of the ones we directly support utilize the fiber laser, CNC router, and press brake.
We also have a full field from AndyMark that was included in the new facility, which we also welcome teams to come and practice on. Team Neutrino, 3928, spent a lot of time honing their autonomous prior to Champs. We’ll be hosting a practice field build day with area teams the Sunday after the first week of the season where we’ll build out a full field. We will also be holding a 2nd annual Week 0 open practice. Last year we had about 8 teams from Iowa attend.
So, with that said, if you find yourself in the Des Moines, Iowa area, do stop by to make some parts, or just crack open an ICE cold soda or water and hang out.
Iowa has open enrollment. We have students on our FRC team from neighboring school districts and we have a pair that are homeschooled but take engineering classes at VHS. I’ve seen some kids that look older than me (37). We are looking for additional mentors and welcome new team members.
The lasers and CNC router are Laguna. The fiber laser is a 1kW FC model.
@R.C here are some photos that I snapped last night. Some things still aren’t commissioned yet like the surface grinder and the SmartShop CO2 laser. The waterjet is currently out-of-service, too. The fiber laser has, obviously, seen the most use and I wish that it was enclosed, along with the CO2 laser, for safety-sake.
Buy it directly from Omio. It’ll cost you $3300. I just purchased one for myself in November and it took about 3 weeks. You might get a second bill from UPS for Customs (cost me 33).
Omio was very responsive. I accidentally clicked I needed a 220V power supply, and they emailed me the next day asking if that was correct. They kept me in the loop about when it shipped and when it would arrive.
Our team has had one for 2.5 years and it has performed like a champ. Just don’t buy you collets from them. We’ve had runout issues. Buy them from Haas. They are reasonable and have very little runout.
Consider used. In Canada, kijiji.ca is a great source as is Marketplace. We have an elderly CNC router which we completely rebuilt, replacing the mdf table with a donated Delrin one. We also made our own rectangular tube holder and added a tool setter and a part finder to it. We have a larger donated Techno Isel awaiting a rebuild. These both came out of schools. Last year we had a Tormach 1100mx with all the bells and whistles given to us. Thank you, Studica.
We don’t turn anyone away no matter when they want to join. Come on over, most of our students are competing at an FTC competition today so we could use the help. I could use a hand welding cages and reef parts.
We have students on our 
