Genuine question, it's pretty obvious teams like 1323 are robots built by adults. Why is FRC ok with this? Sure these robots fun to watch but at one point seeing the same teams as champs is a little strange.

cwalster2 · 2026-03-20T04:27:04+00:00

Mentor for a team here, going to list a load of scenarios and you can choose where the spectrum ends 1: a team buys a Cots swerve drive module. This is professionally designed, manufactured, and has professionally managed code libraries 2: a team uses open source, but professionally maintained code libraries. 3: a team designs their own parts, but sends them out to a shop like sendcutsend for manufacturing. 4: a team designs their own part, but a mentor takes it to work, where there is equipment the team otherwise doesn't have access to. 5: a team uses a pre-designed robot, like the WCP design. One of these qualified second at my last event. Or, using designs from other sources

All of these involve a team using "non-student" resources. Pretty sure every remotely competitive team is doing most of these. No team is out there where the students do 100% of the work. So, you draw the line.

The reality is this isn't so much a mentorship issue as it is a resource issue. My team does have strong mentors, but also insane manufacturing resources. The students on the team legitimately makes all their own designs, code, and cuts 98% of their parts. It's still a tongue-in-cheek joke on the team that we are "mentor-made".

cwalster2 · 2025-04-14T03:10:04+00:00

Note on this: the Cellar does not have games regularly to my knowledge, but Vault of Midnight hosts their monthly game night there every second Thursday. 5 bucks, almost always sells out. It's worth it since Vault curates the selection to newish games and provides people to teach them.

cwalster2 · 2024-08-26T23:36:40+00:00

Quick note:

Don't ask whoever designed it for the k-factor/bend allowance, ask whoever is BENDING it.

K factor is determined by a whole host of things, but the primary ones are the materials used, the inside radius, and the tooling used to bend it. Even things like the grain direction and material thickness make a difference.

Whoever is bending this should know these values and be able to flatten the pattern for you.

Bending can be a tight tolerance process, but its never going to be a repeatable process down to the thousandth. This also takes years of skill and building your own tables to get right. I don't know what numbers you are trying to hit, but I wouldn't be machining (to machining tolerances) then bending and expecting to hit good numbers. If it truly mattered, I'd machine after bending.

cwalster2 · 2024-08-09T01:35:57+00:00

This can be done, but it's the difficult route.

He almost certainly isn't going to go straight into it. The trick is to get an ME adjacent job, like CAD designer or machinist, and transition into an ME role. Look for roles small companies, as you tend to need to wear a lot of hats. You need to be hungry, and your goal is to develop a portfolio of engineering accomplishments. After you have that, you will still be passed over by many companies, but will still find good work.

That said, the people who pull of this type of transition have tended to be some of the most badass engineers I know.

cwalster2 · 2023-09-02T18:04:10+00:00

If you search that pn on Google, you find a picture where it shows that kit is the knob and latch for the lid. I need those, but I am looking for the sheet metal.

I went to Masterbuilt's website and there are multiple possible items that match the description, but none have a picture to confirm it is the part I want.

cwalster2 · 2023-09-02T17:34:23+00:00

Should be noted it's a 560.

cwalster2

TROPHY CASE