Lack of Building Materials and Resources

[PhillyRobotics]

hey everyone,
im an avid reader, few time writer, but i just wanted to know if teams had a total lack of school support and building resources.
Our team (920, Central Lancers, worked in a store room in our school half filled with dead computers, desks, and other junk, and the other half was shared by us and contractors working in the school. All we had were donated hand tools and our college mentors power tools. NO machine shop tools at all. We actually had to get the chassis welded by the mentors Co-op. Our school hadnt set aside money for us so we had to work off donatations form parents and the few dollars that our school could find for us. I was just wondering if other teams had a total lack of resources and materials. I seriously think that first should set up a service for teams that can't afford resources. Any support to show FIRST would be a great help.

Shrey
Head of Drive
Team 920

[Katie Reynolds]

We have awesome school support and building resources. We have full access to our tech center (really big room where we can assemble the parts we make, store stuff, practice, etc.), machine shop (to machine our parts...), wood shop (another big room, useful for builing the crate/painting stuff) and auto shop (to practice in when the tech center ceiling isn't tall enough!). We make most of our parts in our machine shop, and if we can't machine a part in our machine shop at the high school, we have access to a machine shop over at Fox Valley Technical College (another sponsor) Last year we had a student that knew how to weld but he graduated so everything is 'mechanically connected' this year. We also have a graphic arts rom where we can screen print our own shirts, make stickers, flyers, etc. Our school district generously donates money to us, also. Our team has been really lucky to have these facilities available for us to use. We are grateful to all of our sponsors, and especially grateful to the AASD (Appleton Area School District) and FVTC (Fox Valley Technical College) for use of the facilities!!

- Katie

[Andy Baker]

Shrey

Some teams have alot of resources, some don't. The key is to build on what you have each year. Before too long, you'll have alot of equipment, materials, tools and stuff.

Make a priority list and start getting the stuff that is most important to you.

Andy B.

[asher]

Don't make this into a war again, there are the haves and the have-nots, more experienced team will of course usually have better facilities because they have had more time to build them up, being a have or a have-not makes no one better or worse in the scheme of things. Some fully engineer built robots with awesome facilities can be horrible just as some completely student build robots with a hand drill and a hack saw are amazing, and of course there are a 1000 different ways to fit into the middle of that. One is not better nor worse than the other, so its fine to discuss it, but don't turn this into another "but we built our whole robot using only rocks and our teeth so were better than you with your tools" battle, its not even worth it to start. Good luck at all the regionals!

asher
proud to be a 31er

[ahecht]

I know how you feel, we are in the same situation. We just made sure that we had a simple design which required no machining (Okay, we have one machined part, but it could've been done on a drill press). Our frame was made from bosch extrusion, so we only needed an allen wrench set and some locktite to assemble it. We even used large amounts of wood, since it is cheap, light, strong, and easy to work.

As for money, we are also in the same position. We were only able to raise $4000, and the school had to loan us the rest of the money for the entry fee (and they do want it back soon!). I expect it to be easier to get major sponsors now that we have a robot. My family personally loaned the team around $2000 for materials, and I am hoping that once we get our bot back, that maybe we can be repayed. Again, for the same reason, I don't think that fundraising will be as hard for either of us next year, since we will have some experience.