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

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

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.

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

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!

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?

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.

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.

The Best 2 Tools
 

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

do zipties count?

if not then my handy dandy orange handled crimpers.

Tool eh?
 

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!

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

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...

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

pocketknife/dipswitch switcher