Your favorite/most useful tool?

[f22flyboy]

What was your favorite or most useful tool this year's bot construction

Mine had to be a Dremel rotary tool

My brilliant idea for a new Dremel marketing campaign

"They say that to a man with a hammer every problem is a nail; To a man with a Dremel, every problem is solved"

And please keep the "Duct Tape" and "Hammer" replies to a minimum

If this isn't in the right category sorry :confused:

[wwrye]

maybe wire clippers..

[Thunder360]

I had 2 tools that were my best, A test light and my "Gator" grip.

[Duke 13370]

gotta love the multimeter

[skrussel]

belt sander..... no, the dental tools I bought on Ebay.....no, the horizontal band saw.....no, the ....aw geez, I can't pick just one!!

[MikeDubreuil]

Sorry, I'm a programmer... laptop.

[Specialagentjim]

Mouse with 8 buttons and a scroll wheel

(yeah, im an animator and chiefdelphian [as in addict, not one that works for them])

[sevisehda]

10 pound sledge, for fixing bent shafts... and freshman.

[Vincent Chan]

The team freshman... er...

I like the robowrench, socket wrench, and all-in-one stripper/cutter/crimper. Robowrench is just nifty and generally fun to play with. Socket wrench is so beautiful when a bolt/nut needs to be tightened. The all-in-one is very very convenient-- we need several more next year.

[hacksaw692]

*points to user name* :D

I also have a liking to the spring loaded center punch, the socket wrench, and the lime green tape measure.

[Katie Reynolds]

My awesome wire stripper. Or maybe my baby screwdriver - without it, how else can you get those speed controller screws set? Or maybe my 18.8v Milwaukee Hammer Drill. :D That thing's got power! Eh, it's one of those three!!

- Katie

[DanLevin247]

I'd have to say our CNC lathe....I've never used it, seen it being used, or know of a time when it WAS used...but it just looks cool.



( we've got the CNC lathe and CNC mill in the local university's machine shop, which we use, so it's not really ours...but whatevr, i can still pretend )....


Other than that, I like the lathe and the ever so convient de-burring tool.

[Clark Gilbert]

My favorite has to be the Rotozip. If you need something Rotozipped you yell for me, and for some reason people on my team seem to think i have some sort of fascination with it.

Conversation at our shop tonight:

Andy Baker - "Hey, anyone want to Dremel this off?"
Clark (Me) - "Dremel...HA...a dremel is a woman's tool...be a man and use the RotoZip!"

:D

[Gadget470]

First, Dan, That's not a CNC, that's a mill with digital readout and a normal lathe. CNC's are Computer Numeric Control. i.e. program it, let it work. That lathe has no readout, that's what calipers are for. I used them both last year.
--

My favorite tool this year? ClenchWrench.. I was put in charge of pnuematics. Given a pair of these babies and I was set. So much faster that normal wrenches, and had a bit of a ratcheting to it.

Less actual work + Less time used = Efficiant = Yay.

[Andy Baker]

While cleaning out an old lab at Delphi, some people wanted to send a hand-held ultrasonic welder to salvage... but noooo...

Mark Koors (TechnoKat engineer extraordinare), grabbed it and it became TechnoKat proprety... and we just used it for the first time tonight.

So, now my favorite tool is a handheld ultrasonic welder. No rivets, no glue, so screws... super cool.

Andy B.

[IndyStef]

My favorite has to be a CNC mill - I did the wings of team 1018.
But not everybody is so blessed to work for a machine tool manufacturer ...
Other than that - the calliper (spelling? I'm German, I'm allowed to screw that one up ;-), followed by the hammer (the big one)

[D.J. Fluck]

My DMM

[tatsak42]

hmmmm... CNC mill or CNC lathe, not like i've used one, just watched. I like my mill tho, digital readout happiness. mmmm... i like my tapping :D (i'm kidding). oooh flame oxygen torch. :D

[Lord Nerdlinger]

arc welder, you can melt metal, light fires, provide lighting, make huge plumes of smoke, and of course weld!

[BBFIRSTCHICK]

Hummm...I need to think ou of this one... I would think the welders and the mill....but those are machines.....but tools I would have to say the tap, I have this thing with tapping ....lol!!! wait!! wait!!! and Sharpie!!!! and of course duck tape and a hammer! :D

[Melissa Nute]

The lathe or the razor

[Aaron Lussier]

Well for Powered tools I'm gonna have to go witht he team Sawz-all, It can cut through anything, as for my favorite tool, I'd have to go with a simple Straight Razor that folds out of a little key chain holder thingy.

[LBK Rules]

Angle grinder.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by Andy Baker
While cleaning out an old lab at Delphi, some people wanted to send a hand-held ultrasonic welder to salvage... but noooo...

Mark Koors (TechnoKat engineer extraordinare), grabbed it and it became TechnoKat proprety... and we just used it for the first time tonight.

So, now my favorite tool is a handheld ultrasonic welder. No rivets, no glue, so screws... super cool.

Andy B.

::continues staring in awe:: pretty...

lol, well, my other favorite tool is my leatherman...but thats mostly because I help SOAP at competition (those pesky computers always need a good inside lookin)

[Curtis Williams]

my favorite tool has become a 100 lb brass rod that we found in the back of the machine shop. great for relieving anger on the robot, bins, or freshmen. also great for when parts need the proper motivation to fit.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by Curtis Williams
my favorite tool has become a 100 lb brass rod that we found in the back of the machine shop. great for relieving anger on the robot, bins, or freshmen. also great for when parts need the proper motivation to fit.

wait wait wait, we're not the only team with a 100 lb brass rod in teh machine shop (ours was in a drawer).

Quick OT question, but, does every team have a 100 lb brass rod in the machine shop?

[GregT]

CNC mill, definitally.

Greg

[Collin Fultz]

little big al and the 3/8 7/16 combo crescent wrench

[Alavinus]

My Leather man is definitely my favorite tool. However, I also have taken a liking to our 25 lb. steel straightening plate.

[Yan Wang]

A good set of allen wrenches... They are invaluable to anyone on our team working on frame/drive.

[Joe3]

I'd have to go with zip-ties, and the ziptie gun....Half of our robot was held together by them last year.

[BBFIRSTCHICK]

Originally posted by GregT
CNC mill, definitally.

Greg

you have one of those?? Sweet!!!!! My team would be heaven if we had one of those!! yet at the same time, even rough its sweet as hell and dose everything for you, it kindda defeats the whole "hands on" thing. I dunno im the type of person that needs hands on stuff! yet a CNC would save alot of time

[Gadget470]

CNC Mill's can still be very hands on. If you don't have someone who knows how to program it on-hand, it can be used as a digital read-out Mill. If you have someone who CAN program it, it's hands on for them. Either way they save time, and are still hands on.

[Jim Giacchi]

Bridgeport, got to have one if you want to build a quality robot, plain and simple.

[BBFIRSTCHICK]

One of our engineers has a CNC Mill in this garage. He had been doing some parts for us. All he did was set the program sit back and relax..the thing was huge .. Really cool!

[Frank(Aflak)]

my team has these thingers that are to pliers what bugattis are to cars: the Robo-Grip.

You can get so much force out of that thing . . . . we use it to crimp stuff and to persuade stuff etc.

Also up there: the have a wire stripper/cutter/crimper. Its amazing. You put a peice of wire in the top peice and it strips it . . . . all you need to do is squeeze the handle together like you would a plier. You can strip 6 gauge in a second with that.

Then farther down there is a cutter and some crimper things. Its like super wire tool thing.

I also like the drillpress.

But maybe the grinder is our best friend. Who knows?

[Mark Hamilton]

T-Handle Alan Wrenches ( like normal alan wrenches but around 1' long with a nice rubber t-shaped handle). They are perfect for those hard to reach set screws.

[Scooter]

Hmmm...I would have to go with:

- The Brown Handled Precision Adjuster (hammer)
- Micro Butane Torch....you can solder and light things on fire...The best of both worlds
- The dremel ranks up there
- Sledge Hammer for when that piece of code won't work, or that freshman won't stay on task
- My brain!

Bill B.

[jzampier]

I dunno about anyone else, but i like
my two hands best. And sometimes the occasional foot to carefully adjust something.

[Josh Hambright]

do zipties count?

if not then my handy dandy orange handled crimpers.

[Cheese Head]

Well I'm a programmer, but I will not say laptop! I also spent some time in the shop, and I love that drill press oh yeah!

[JMastahFlex19]

I love Quick-Grips! They're so great!

[Pengiun Joe]

Well, in trying to key some shafts and get some sprockets to fit, all our mallets (and incidentally anything else hard enough to bash something with) have seen a lot of action lately.
It's not really a tool, but I swear that not a year goes by that I don't epoxy something critical together. This year it was the brushing for a drill motor. Last year it was the connector for a screw rod, and the year before that it was the cap on my buddies Mountain Dew. Good times...

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by Mark Hamilton
T-Handle Alan Wrenches ( like normal alan wrenches but around 1' long with a nice rubber t-shaped handle). They are perfect for those hard to reach set screws.

You forgot that you get to watch them twist up when its too tight! heh heh :D

[ngreen]

pocketknife/dipswitch switcher

[EvilInside]

Ya gotta love the nipple grippers, I mean, the vise grips. . . .

[Hermione692]

I like the zip ties :) especially when they are in many different colors
Hermione

[mgreenley]

1)Bridgeport Series I & II Milling Machines. Who doesn't like being able to mill a 1/4 in of aluminum with one pass, or be able to do .0005 accuracy? (Sighs, gets dreamy look in eye)

[mgreenley]

MOST USEFUL 1)Bridgeport Series I & II Milling Machines. Who doesn't like being able to mill a 1/4 in of aluminum with one pass, or be able to do .0005 accuracy? (Sighs, gets dreamy look in eye)

2)Lathes-it says it all

"COOLEST" 3)Hardinge CNC milling machines
(1 millionth inch accuracy!!)

[joe gem]

u have how many CNC mills?
our team has 7 CNC mills witch were cranking out four parts a day and a leath (thanks to TRP)
we also have a mill and a leath that we could go to any time a fine tune aour smaller parts(thanks to mr.smith)

well my favoite tull wan prob the dremal, the rubber malet and the cofee machine:D

[Richard Wallace]

Rat-tail file.

[Scott team 48]

My Favorite tool is our shop bot which is actually a cnc miller.

I haven't found a use for it on our robot but it is fun to make a name tag or a door sign with. I will find a use for it eventually.

[f22flyboy]

Originally posted by joe gem
u have how many CNC mills?
our team has 7 CNC mills witch were cranking out four parts a day and a leath (thanks to TRP)
we also have a mill and a leath that we could go to any time a fine tune aour smaller parts(thanks to mr.smith)

well my favoite tull wan prob the dremal, the rubber malet and the cofee machine:D

Your favorite tool should be spell-check

[DanLevin247]

Originally posted by Specialagentjim
wait wait wait, we're not the only team with a 100 lb brass rod in teh machine shop (ours was in a drawer).

Quick OT question, but, does every team have a 100 lb brass rod in the machine shop?


We have a massive shelf at the end of our shop, with about thirty 100lbs+ rods of various material, yes, some of them are brass!

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by f22flyboy
Your favorite tool should be spell-check


Now that was just plain mean man..

[KyleGreen]

1. Hammer
2. Cordless Drill and Pneumatic Drill
3. Titanium Drill bits
4. Dremel
5. Impact Wrench (for when you just can't ratchet anymore)
6. Anything else that can function as a hammer.. textbook, edu-bot, etc.

3/8 wrench and socket have seen a lot of use too.

We have a CNC mill, but it was easier to draw a diagram with measurments and send it home with one of the guys on the team.. the next day we'd have the part, thanks to the huge bearing factory in our town.

[fox46]

My favourite tool has to be an 18 volt mastercraft drill... When our staff advisor leaves the room, and turns off the power (so that we can't kill ourselves while he's gone), Out comes the drill with a 1" socket on the end, and we can use it to run the mill, lathes, bandsaw, drilling machine, and pretty much anything else that runs off 120/220 Volts. Believe it or not, it works just as well as running the machines off AC, except it's a little slower, and burns through batteries like mad...

[sprchal]

Probably Alan wrenches and our ratchet set..... I mean, we're using Bosch extruded aluminum, plus all of our bolting we're doing (no major machining capability this year :( ).

[Daniel Brim]

Gator Grip Socket Accept no substitutes...

[Sean_330]

The 2 most important tools on my team.

1. First Aid Kit

2. Raid Flying Insect Killer

[FAKrogoth]

Most useful part: Threaded rod

"These arms don't stay parallel."
"Secure it with the small threaded rod!"

"What should we use as the axle for our lifting arms?"
"Threaded rod works well. Ooh, wow, that's bending a lot. Eh, good enough."


My favorite tool: Drill press. Yes, it's a LOT slower than a heavy person with a hand drill, but it drills straight.


I suppose our team could get access to the school's CNC mill and/or lathe, but they've been used by too many stupid freshmen (including myself, in the days of yore) to be of much use for actual part production. And, like all of the Fat Man's instruments, the motors suck.

[sanddrag]

Air compressor (although the tank is very small) and titanium drill bits. Allen ball drivers and a sawzall are usefull too. The drill press is good. Oh, and the bolt cutters, and chop saw. And the GRINDER. We never buy bolts to length, we just have long ones that we grind down. Vise grips are very useful too. Oh there's just so many wonderful tools to pick only one.

[157#1Driver]

As a machinist I would have to say...a hammer. Especially when your tring to program that CNC, but it doesn't wanna work.

[WernerNYK]

Leatherman. About 1/2 of team 190 owns a leatherman. They are our unofficial team tool of choice :D

[Rob Colatutto]

go horizontal bandsaw. we found one up in the , very useful machine

[ROJO]

Bridgeport Mill with digital readout and motorized x-axis. Unholy accuracy (5/10000"), but no CNC so you still get to do the fun stuff yourself!:D

[Austin]

My favorite tool(s) at our shop has to be the lathes. After making 20+ of those Delrin pullies for our new drivetrain, who wouldn't get attached? :D

Ahh...the smell of formaldehyde in the evening! :ahh:

(Delrin is a plastic produced by the polymerization of formaldehyde, and when you cut it, all of the lovely smell gets wafted toward your nose, And oooh boy does it smell!)

Here are the pullies (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pictures.php?s=&action=single&picid=3539&direction=DESC&sort=title&perrow=3&trows=4&quiet=verbose)

[Daniel_H]

My favorite is paquimeter I don't know why, maibe for its several utilities

[David Hoff]

My favorite tool has to be the cordless drill.

[MBurr-Mecum]

Anything sharp and fast-moving, aka drills, saws and the drill press. My coach says this makes me frightening....

[ahecht]

Originally posted by WernerNYK
Leatherman. About 1/2 of team 190 owns a leatherman. They are our unofficial team tool of choice :D

Yes, the Leatherman Wave is definatly my tool of choice. I use it every day, even outside of the build season.

I really wish we had had a dremel tool though...

[IVIaxor]

I would have to say the folding allen key set. I don't think our team could have built a robot without them.

("Alright, where is the f***ing 1/8" allen key, it was right here a moment ago... nono, thats the 7/64ths key!")

[Austin]

Personally, i think that cordless drills are terrible. They have no power, whatsoever...so for my many heavy-duty drilling needs, corded is the ONLY way to go!

[soezgg]

id have to say ...hammer also..i mean i love instruments meant to bash things

[jzampier]

Originally posted by Austin
Personally, i think that cordless drills are terrible. They have no power, whatsoever...so for my many heavy-duty drilling needs, corded is the ONLY way to go!

I think someone needs to introduce you to a 18v DeWalt Cordless Hammer Drill....

Screw all day, and never complain about the lack of power.

For the seriously hardcore, there is also a 24v
version available, two hand operation only tho.
:ahh:

[srjjs]

The brain is a tool, is it not?
I'd say it's much more versatile and powerful than the others mentioned.

[FAKrogoth]

The trouble with the brain, of course, is the difficulty involved in cutting stuff with it.

Believe me, I've tried.:p

[Onizuka]

favorite tool would have to be the cnc machine i used all season. and of course a 3/16 allen key.

[SkitzoSmurf]

My team seems to always be murdering eachother over the drill, rivet gun, and jig saw.
My personal fave would have to be the hacksaw, although I should make the tape measure a good friend too. . .

OOOOOOOPS!!!!

[Stephanie]

hmmm... not just leatherman, but *multi tool*
i have the buck-tool, which is my best friend even in the offseason. some of the other team members carry mini-lethermans on their keychains, while a select few of us have the much more useful full sized multi-tools :)

[Lauren Hafford]

Our team dubbed the leatherman the Pocket Jesus and even the mormon kid uses that name!
Also we named the short screw drivers Stubby Phil and Stubby Stan for phillips and standard (but i don't know if we made that up or not).

But I seriously think that the 4-40 nuts (especially the ones with nylon inserts) are just plain CUTE! They're tho iddy biddy and thweet!! :D does anyone agree with me? :)
lauren

[f22flyboy]

Unfortunately, my school district and its zero tolerance policy would have a heart attack and lock me away for all of eternity if I carried a *gasp* sharp object to school. But the leatherman is darn useful

[chellyzee93]

dremmel... *drools*

... "who says a drill press can't be used as a mill?"

OH! OH! My leatherman Juice! "Kt is not included.."

[dez250]

ok my fav. tools must be (not in any order)
-dremel (i like my own more then my schools machine shops')
-manual mills
-manual lathes
-cnc mills
-cnc lathe

and last but not least at school we have an industrial dremel, i sware it must weigh 10 lbs and its not a dremel company tool but it does the same as a dremel does, but at an industrial rate.

Also i love our sheet metal shear and brake, how else do you get a piece of lexan bent to 90 degrees by hand in 2 mins.

Dez
www.team250.org
Team 250 Dynamos: a 12 year team.

[kevin.li.rit]

Duct tape.

[Gobiner]

Our fearless leader found some really nifty wire strippers at a garage sale. 3 for $5. Super cool, and because I subscribe to the EarthBound style of naming, it's officially called the Deluxe Wire Strippers. They grab, cut, and strip small gauge wires with a single motion! Can even intimidate small freshmen!

[Hardwire]

i'd say that the most useful tools on our team this year are
1)7/16 wrench/wratcet of any kind
2)the 1/4 20 tap (man Gary could tap all day)
3)anything used to cut i mean anything (we have a pearing knife in the tool box) well not the band saw it don't cut straight so everything else
4)the dremel is cool (it sparks with everything)
5)we got this awesome angle drill geared way down man that thing got some power
6)i personally like the rubber mallet i can just smack thiungs with it all day and never get tired

[EIROBOTICS86]

Originally posted by sevisehda
10 pound sledge, for fixing bent shafts... and freshman.
I second that and suggest that a team gives them out at nats

[PMGRACER]

Ours was definitly the Manuel CNC Bridgeport and the 15 axis Manuel NC Lathe!! Truthfully though, the Cray Super Computer became unusually usefull when trying to package the big block chevy we used to power the drivetrain. Of course you can't forget the 32 handed Freshman powerfile!! That really saved our cans! :D

[ChrisH]

1) AutoCad Inventor - to figure out what I'm building should look like
2) NASTRAN - to figure out if what I'm building will break
3) CNC Mill - esp when Rick V is running it. He plays a mill like Heifitz plays a violin. Besides it makes a pretty good drill press too! If necessary an manual will do most times.
4) lathe - i love to watch the chips fly
5) Datco - a dremmel on steroids
6) band saw - too much work to cut 1" stock by hand

[sanddrag]

I have a couple new favorites. Multi-purpose Super White Grease and Liquid Wrench.

[Pierson]

Has to be my laptop: Fundraising, grant letters, thank you letters, website, team updates, team organization... etc...

[activemx]

right on.. Laptop all the way..

Inventor
Web Designing
Team Management
Emailing
Graphics like Tshirts and Panels design
every little thing you could think of..

i also like the 2.5 Allan key very helpful this year for all those 4mm screws for the bosch.

[Eric Reed]

We bought a compressor four years ago when the robots didn't have on-board compressors. It has sat quietly in the corner since then. This year one of our mentors brought over some pneumatic die-grinders, and I have to say those are cool.

[157#1Driver]

Originally posted by PMGRACER
Ours was definitly the Manuel CNC Bridgeport and the 15 axis Manuel NC Lathe!! Truthfully though, the Cray Super Computer became unusually usefull when trying to package the big block chevy we used to power the drivetrain. Of course you can't forget the 32 handed Freshman powerfile!! That really saved our cans! :D


15 Axis Machine!! Wow, as a fairly experienced machinist I gotta see that. ( I think you ment 15 tools )

[Eric Reed]

Nope, I think he meant 15-axis lathe. We've got one too. It helps when you are building your robot in extra dimensions, which explains how they got the Chevy block (or was it the whole truck?) in under 130 pounds.

Eric.

[157#1Driver]

15 Axis is a lot. Most machines handle 5-7. Do you put parts on this machine and rotate? Like a turn table?

[jzampier]

Yeah, those 15 Axis- lathes are pretty cool, but i much prefer my temporal-shifting, phase regulated, matter reducing device. Think robot only weights 130 lbs b/c its only in this space-time continuum for a small portion of its existance.
:yikes:

[chellyzee93]

most useful "tool" :
-Kt

[Pierson]

Do Freshman count? They are quite useful for doing stuff veteran members don't have time to do.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by Peciv
Do Freshman count? They are quite useful for doing stuff veteran members don't have time to do.

They are not! They get in the way and try to play with things that make loud noises and/or are shiney. Usually, a shiney loud noise machine is capable of destroying something or is expensive, thus resulting in distrust of engineers towards students. This distrust results in the inability of the team to touch any such machine (even those that know what they're doing).

[SiliconKnight]

Design

* Graph paper and a good ink pen. You'll waste untold hours of CAD time if you don't draw out sketches first.

* Solidworks 2003 - I like it more than Inventor. Let me see what I'm building, calculates how much it weights, and let me see if things are gonna bash into each other. (Interference detection is a god-send when you're building anything with more than 10 parts).

* Cosmos/SM - To see if it'll break, and to use FEA to optimize my designs.

* GNU/SCiTe - my text editor, G-Code editor. Good also to keep to-do lists in. Yeah, I'm arcane like that.

Build:

* Sharpie marker. I was a decent machinist when I knew how to use the shop's precision layout tools and hold 0.002" tolerance on my parts. I became a *good* machinist when I knew where I can cut corners and just mark things with a sharpie marker, locate things with my Mark 1 eyeball, and use a drill press instead of a mill.

* Bridgeport Manual mill. Yes, there are times when we CNC things, but we still havn't gotten to the point where we have enough good CNC operators. I can build just about every part on our robot with a mill and a lathe by hand.

* Clausing-Metosa 14x40" lathe, with carbide indexable tools. You have to admit, being able to see the cutting edge reflected in the mirror finish of a piece of aluminum is pretty darn cool..

* HydroMech horizontal band saw. With a 420V motor, you can just about cut a car in half on that thing.

Field Repairs:

* Dremel. Only complain is that I don't have a cordless one. Never underestimate what a Dremel with an 1/8" end mill chuck into it will do for aluminum removal, at 30,000 RPM (Steady hands *AND* eye protection for *EVERYONE* around you is a MUST!).

* Ryobi 18V Cordless drill/driver I'd go for the DeWalt, but it's my personal drill and I couldn't afford the DeWalt kit.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Definitely Mr. Bridgeport (our mill). It can be used for so many interesting things, especially knocking 1/4" off a solid steel bar...

Other useful tools:
zip ties - can't live without 'em
hose clamps - great for fixing messed up drill clutches
portable welder - great for 10 pm welding in the hotel parking lot
sand blaster - makes sprockets look nice and pretty
lathe - because you never know when you'll need to make a bushing in a jiffy
drill press - who needs a diet when you have a drill press for weight reduction?

[roboticscom13]

The best tool of all time has to be "The Waterjet".... But if it has to be a portable tool i would say my pocket knife (Gerber Knife), and a 5/32 T-Wrench

[D.Fahringer]

You got it! A CNC water jet is the tool that will set you free
to make the impractical light weight parts and gears that
previously would take forever!

For hand tools give me a three cornered scraper for shaping and deburring! These can be bought outright or made from shortened triangular files. They operate similar to peeling an apple or potato.


Motto no. 122 "No Horseplay in the Shop!"

[sanddrag]

DIKEM and a scribe. With this and my eyes I can get to within .002 on a Dewalt Mitre saw with a wood blade. (and that was at 2 in the morning!)

Also, that reminds me I like that saw too with the carbide tipped blade. It will zip right through anything except steel but we have a cutoff blade for that.

Also really handy sometimes is my butane pencil torch. Built in igniter, and a fine tip flame up to 2000 degrees F. Not bad.


One really annoying tool is the propane torch without a built in igniter. It is kind of old so it doesn't burn so clean anymore. Our barbeque lighter was out of gas so that option to light it was out. We turned to the good 'ol bench grinder (another great tool) and a piece of steel angle to try to light the darned thing. We turned the gas all the way up and made a shower of sparks bigger than you could imagine but the thing still wouldn't light. Time for a new torch I guess.

TOOLS TOOOLS TOOOOOOLS!!!!!:D

[mynameisalex]

a WIRE STRIPPER!!!

Actually, last year my freshmanly fascination with this tool is what gave the team its name...

[Dirty Harry]

Most useful tool? Our giant wrench and our "fart dispersal unit" (a plug-in fan).

But seriously, we really found some good uses for plastic zip ties.

[c01100011]

:D The Slide Hammer :D . We tap the ends of our drive axels and use this to yank them out or shove them in. Works great and it is tons of fun. :p

last year my favorite tool was the dremel because it saved my arms from a lot of the "freshman go file" times :mad:

[Lord Nerdlinger]

needle nose plyers to pick all the metal shards out of my hand

i think i have a total of 33 cuts / gashes now :ahh: :(

[Austin]

Well, ever since I've been on the Technokat's I have dispised our cordless drills...they could barely cut through plastic!!! :ahh: Much to my delight, we recently picked up a good ol' 1/2" Makita M-Force 18V cordless drill...now this has to be my favorite tool. You can cut through anything with this drill...and it never bogs down! it's amazing. Just the other day I popped in a 1-3/16" bit(though the top of it is 1/2") for comedy's sake...but it fit! Ooooh yeah. Spins like a charm. Oh yeah, and it's got NiMH batteries...not those annoying NiCd batts that anger me. :D

[Mr. Ivey]

Milwaukee cordles Sawzall, Milwaukee cordless Drill + Craftsman carbid bits, my 40 year old set of end wrenches, my 30 year old bearing puller, my new pnumatic tubing cutter (hey stick your finger here), and finally a Craftsman Lathe from 1953 that I had to make parts on. Lets not forget a piece of 3 foot pipe for "convincing" stubborne bolts when needed.
Ivey

[Tyler 783]

My favorite tool is the lathe that has a plaque on it that says " Conforms to the wartime measures act of 1940. For all those who are not Canadian that act was abolished after WW2.

[JVN]

Deburring tool.

[Alan Anderson]

My favorite tool is a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red. Really kicks the coding part of my brain into high gear!

[ZACH P.]

I love this 7/16 and 3/8 hex driver I aquired from a verizon guy... Its sorta like a double-ended nut driver. Who needs rachets?

[Marygrace]

Welder, and my new flowery screwdriver i got for my birthday from a mom from 1115. lol

[Dorsk65]

Its gotta be the heat gun, I mean there are so many good uses; Heat Shrink, press fitting stuff, warming food, melting/melding/bending lexan and a ton of other things. But a very close second is the set of hex ball drivers. They smoke normal hex wrenches.

Oh yeah, 5hp Air Compressors are fun...

[ShadowKnight]

can anyone say angle grinder...oooo....sparks :-P

[MOEmaniac]

my favorite tool would have to be brut force :D

[Gabe]

It's going to break the rules, but I have three favorite tools, because they are so useful to me everyday:

1. 12" single-cut mill file with an adjustable handle. A big file is not only easier to hold, its length removes more metal in one pass and finishes the job quickly.

2. DeWalt 18V cordless XRP hammer-drill/driver. It's so handy to simply reach over and pick up the tool when I need it. It also has plenty of power for hard jobs like drilling through thick steel. (Only used hammer-drill once, but I was really glad that time!)

3. Custom folding pocket Allen key set with ball-end. I bought a folding ball-end set and switched the keys into my compact metal handled set. It really excels at driving screws at an angle, but easy to carry around. It is my most useful tool during build season. :D

[Nuttyman54]

Dremel, hands down

[1902_Battery_SGT]

well my personal favorite tool has to be the drill press we got half way through build. not only did it do our drilling but it also helped us press on beartings adn rotar things out. but then again their is the chopsaw. at 1902 the robot could have never been built without the trusty chopsaw.

[joshsmithers]

spell cheker is a vary usefull tool ;)

[Rohith Surampudi]

- Allen Wrenches
- Reciprocating Saw ;) :p

[Francis-134]

I'd have to say the deburring tool is the most used on my team. With about 1000 speed holes in the frame and CNC all around, we all get a lot of practice with it.

[artdutra04]

CAD drafting program - either a 2D-based one, like CADkey ver. 21 (which they have installed on every computer in my school's computer lab) or a 3D-based one, like my favorite - Autodesk Inventor.
Heat Gun - so useful for anything, including warming up cold leftover food during the build season
7/16" wrench and 5/32" T-Handle allen wrench - because they are used on almost everything on our robot.
Loctite - Sure beats having to check every nut and bolt after every match.
Computers / Internet - can be used for anything from researching particular ideas, or surfing ChiefDelphi

[anna~marie]

umm zip ties?
really now, they are so useful!
(they came in handy when my team stole my hair ties to put them on the robot :rolleyes: )

Zip Ties and Dikes/Side Cutters.

[bear24rw]

Being programmer.. my favorite is defiently the parallax screw driver lol

[Pavan Dave]

Multimeter or Electrical Tape.

Usually 99% chance of them being in my pocket during the build season. And a 99.9% chance of them being in my pocket during Competition.

Pavan.

[lukevanoort]

I would say miter saw, but then I got to thinking, instead of what is the most useful at the time, what would be the worst to be stuck without for the season. You can substitute other things for wrenches and such, but the thing we actually ran out of and spent the last 3 or so days of build season without tops my list, zip ties. Without them electrical work ground to a halt as did prototyping mounts.

[lbarger]

The optical center punch and a plotter that prints 1:1 scale for templates.

[sand500]

Dremel. So helpful in melting stuff. :rolleyes:

btw, Ididn't want to make a new thread about this when there was already one.

[LBK Rules]

Wow... Talk about thread ressurection!

Thinking back to my time with FRC, I'd say the best tool was self-tapping screws. :yikes:

[roystur44]

This year I brought a pneumatic pop rivet gun into the lab. We had our frame locked down in a few minutes. The year before we had to take turns popping the big rivets and it took us hours.

Roy

[demosthenes2k8]

Tortoise HG.
Who says Software doesn't have any tools?

There's another tool I find entertaining, but he doesn't like it when I call him that. (Only joking, don't worry!)

[Ankit S.]

I think my name makes it obvious :)

i guess the jigsaw comes at a distance second ;)

[MattC9]

A Multi-Allen wrench and a socket wrench will solve all you'r problems...

[ChristopherSD]

A mouse for CAD. Everybody knows it's impossible to use CAD software without one. :)

[MrForbes]

A mouse for CAD. Everybody knows it's impossible to use CAD software without one. :)

It wasn't when I learned CAD....which I forgot about 20 years ago....

My favorite is a tough choice between the hacksaw and the file. I can't decide. I used both to make this when I was a freshman in high school....35 years ago....

[NorviewsVeteran]

Jigsaw.

It can do straight cuts, unique curves, large diameter holes in wood, metal, pvc, polycarb with dozens of styles of blades that are easier to change than a bandsaw, and still fit in a briefcase.

[Trent B]

My SOG Powerlock Multitool, something about having pliers, a v-cutter (think for cutting seatbelts, so works well on rope, plastic bags of bolts, zipties, fabric etc), small wood saw, file and screwdrivers at short notice is nice.

[tim-tim]

Call me kooky, but a well rested mind/brain

[GW Kalrod]

A file, when everything else goes wrong I can always enjoy mindless filing of edges...

[seannoseworthy]

CNC Machine, preferably a Haas.

[Petef911]

My favorite tool would have to be our teams horizontal/vertical band saw. We picked it up at Harbor Freight. That thing will seriously cut through anything and is very durable. Only problem is that its really heavy. But the benefits out weigh the negatives.


My favorite tool that i use outside of robotics and also in robotics is my DeWalt cordless reciprocating saw. Its 18V of raw power and can chop through anything that i have put it up against.

[JCharlton]

I'll also second the pneumatic pop-riveter. Last year we picked up a foot-shear and finger brake (not as dangerous as they sound!) to do sheet metal work, they built most of our bot this year.

Another must have for anyone working with sheet metal are step drills.

Of all the tools though I really couldn't live without the shop broom...

[CalTran]

Wago, wirecutter/crimps, and a soldering iron. And my camera. :)

[boomergeek]

weight to point score impact of a widget defines much of the game...

[Steve-Man]

Gonna go with the multi alan wrench or the philips head screwdriver.

[reuven]

zip-tay!!!!!!!
(and a disc!)

[Kyoshirin]

A DeWalt corded drill with a 1/4" and a 1/8" bit. It makes all our fastener holes. If it can't be riveted or bolted, it doesn't belong on the robot. =D

[Jeffy]

7/16" wrench and 4mm allen wrench

[AndyH]

Knipex adjustable wrench pliers.

[davidthefat]

Laptop