Official Q&A: VEX V5 Robotics Competition 2025-2026: Push Back

In the answers to QA 2676 and 2677 it is made clear that no adult may modify any piece of metal/plastic for a student and that no student may use metal/plastic modified by a student on another team.

In 2676 it was affirmed with regards to making custom metal or plastic parts that "only the members of the team are allowed/empowered to do the mechanical work (or directly run the machines that do the work) on the plastic or metal (including any cutting, drilling, bending, etc.). No one outside of the team (including adults) can do any of these things for the team". It was also affirmed as a G2 violation if "An adult cuts a number of 35 hole long C channels into 25s and 10s and puts them in the organization’s cut metal bin for student use"

In 2677 it was affirmed that "it a violation of G4/R2 if the students find and use (unchanged) a piece of custom cut plastic or metal made and discarded by another team".

By this logic, are the following statements true:

1. Teams may only build with metal that begins as new-stock or unmodified.
2. When a team modifies a piece of metal in any way, that piece and its off-cut are only available to that team.
3. Every piece of modified metal must be recycled at the end of the year, as it is no longer usable by any team. (Or sorted by team for their use in later seasons.)
4. All permanent modifications to any vex legal part (gears converted to cams, cut chain flaps, bent standoffs, shortened shafts, drilled high-strength shafts, etc.) are available for the sole use of the team that made the modification.

The rulings in 2676 and 2677 have significant implications to the costs and logistics of running a V5RC program. Surely G3 would come into play here... parts that have merely been generically modified, such as cut to length, should remain available for future use.