Hi, I've been lurking a little and this seems like a massively knowledgeable place, plus nice helpful folks. Please be kind, as I'm out of my field here.
I'm the engineering mentor for a small town high school robotics team, they compete in First Technical Challenge robotics - the robots are mostly aluminum and fit in an 18" cube. The team was new last season, but has done pretty well due to smart, enthusiastic kids.
We've pretty much swept through the district the 1-1/2 seasons we've competed, this season we went to regionals and qualified both our bots for worlds, the top 128 teams from around the world - China, S. Korea, Russia, teams sponsored by Google, Intel, etc. We were frankly not prepared to compete against the level of build sophistication we saw at worlds. Out bots were built with hand tools and a small drill press. We limited design to what we could build with the tools we had. We beat about 30 teams at worlds, but weren't competitive with the top teams.
I had a blast a worlds, so did the kids. We'd like to go back, but not to get beaten like a cheap drum. We need to up our game and I've pledged to give the kids the tools they need. The team gets no budget from the School District, I've paid for most of the parts and travel out of pocket (I've had a pretty successful career in oil and gas engineering, but not manufacturing), so budget is a consideration.
I took machine shop in college, but none since. We should be very able to get a local machinist mentor for the build teams, as there is a lot of precision manufacturing local to us.
Several of the teams we saw at worlds told me they sent out parts for CNC machining. I won't have that. These kids will learn more if they design and build their own stuff, and these would be terrific skills to develop when young. These are great, smart, hardworking kids who deserve a chance to compete without a manufacturing handicap.
So my question is, what would the experienced folks here recommend for benchtop tools to work with aluminum and plastics, maybe occasional small steel parts. Precision and ease of use, is desirable, as I said the maximum dimension on the bots is 18" so the parts will be small, as is our lab. I will be buying the equipment for them out of pocket, so cost is a consideration.
I'd like them to learn manual machining first, with the ability to upgrade to CNC as a later option. One of the build teams is mostly freshman now, so they have several years to hone their skills.
Based on what I've read here I've been looking at Sherline, Taig, and the X2/Little Machine Shop machines. For student work, are there any significant advantages or drawbacks to one or the other. Is initial setup harder for one or the other? I think they probably NEED a mill, and a lathe could be an option added later. I'd like to get them going for under $2000, for machine plus accessories (tooling, rotary table, etc.), if that's possible.
Thanks in advance for your advice.