Student Welding?
 

I was wondering how each team gets their welding done. On site? Sent out to machine shops? Included a poll so please satisfy my curiosity :)

Re: Student Welding?
 

we have our automation controls class that has one of the students do it. the guy who is working on our welding now had a job welding before

Re: Student Welding?
 

Since our host school has no metal working equipment other than a drill press, our welding is done by one of our students using the shop of a nearby school that has a metal shop. So, our situation doesn't fit the quiz -- student welding done offsite.

Re: Student Welding?
 

we have a welder and no one is allowed to touch it except me but my welding skills need improving though

Re: Student Welding?
 

Whoops, sorry about that Rick. I'd change it but either there isn't a way to change the poll or I can't find it.

Re: Student Welding?
 

PM one of the Mods or the Admin and they could fix it, that's part of what there're there for. :)


We do have some welding capabilities at the school but sometimes it's been done outside depending on if the parts were having other machining work done that couldn't be done at the school.

The last few years 237 has worked hard to get updated machinery donated to the school's machine shop. We are able to do much more in house than in the past.

Re: Student Welding?
 

One of our two mentors just got his welder all set up to weld aluminium so he has been welding everything for us even if we didnt want/need it welded but apparently some of the parentts in charge of our robotics room have started pushing to get a refridgerator instead of new tools *cough air compressor cough*

Re: Student Welding?
 

We're able to have welding done by community college students in a local welding program should we need it, but I'm trying to avoid committing to it whereever possible.

Re: Student Welding?
 

#340 has been blessed with a Dynasty 200 TIG welding machine at the school and students that know how to TIG weld aluminum.

Re: Student Welding?
 

Our refrigerator broke last year.. This year we've got two of those small ice cream freezers, with the glass tops.. They seem to be working quite well :)

Re: Student Welding?
 

Fiberglass can't be welded too bad...I miss the fire...

Re: Student Welding?
 

We have a tig welder set up that I use to weld the bot. I get to spend a lot of quality time with it :) .

Re: Student Welding?
 

The only welder we have is an OLD crappy mig welder that doesn't stand a chance agianst aluminum. We 3 shops that donate welding to us.

Re: Student Welding?
 

Since our school is in desperate need of a place to work since we currrently reside in the drafting room and have very few tools to do the job i am able to weld at my dads shop offsite-----we also fit into student welding offsite.

Re: Student Welding?
 

We are very fortunate in that we have a large metalworking shop with several TIG welders. When we weld, though rarely, we have our mentor do it, and he does a wonderful job. (Probably because he used to be an overhead welder.)

Re: Student Welding?
 

But, for the last few years at least, we have not done any welding for the following reasons.

A) It's a skill, not a trade. Either you are good at it or you are not. We don't have anyone on the team skilled enough to weld our frame nor do we want to weld our frame.

B) Time savings. - What takes an hour to weld (properly) takes a half hour to assemble after pre drilling and tapping holes.

C) It's not that easy to move welded pieces on your robot to allow for a modification in the pits.

D) Welds break. You can count on that. And when you break a weld at a competition, good luck getting it fixed before your next match. Been there done that. (2003).

Re: Student Welding?
 

On Cyber Blue we do all of our own welding. Two of us have been learning from one of our mentors. We can weld aluminum and steel. We have a whole welding station, including the awesome transparent orange curtain!

Re: Student Welding?
 

We can weld steel in our shop, but we get a helper/mentor to weld all of our aluminum, and he does a great job.

Re: Student Welding?
 

We had one student TIG weld our whole drive chassis, and this year we are doing all of our own machining on our mill, that now has a digital readout thank god, except for our wheel rims, those got water jetted.

Re: Student Welding?
 

It sounds like you just had a bad experience with weld joints. We've been welding our frames for years and as far as I know none of them have broken, and it's generally far superior to bolting the frame together (I wouldn't trust that to take a hit). It could be that the advisor who does the vast majority of our welding has about 30 years of experience. As for the poll question, there is one student on our team bold enough to weld inconsequential parts, the important stuff is done by that advisor.

Re: Student Welding?
 

All of the above.

Re: Student Welding?
 

We have a Lincoln Tig 185 in our shop, and this year we have a student doing extensive welding on an aluminum frame. We don't get a student with the required skill every year...

Eugene

Re: Student Welding?
 

While we've got stick and MIG in our shops, we have not yet got a TIG. In the past any aluminum welding we needed done we had done off-site by a professional welder. We tended to avoid aluminum construction for this reason, focussing instead on wood and composites that they students could fabricate with the tools that we had.

This year, however, we have a new teacher on staff who used to be a welder in his previous life, and he was able to hook us up with the TIG welder at a neighbouring school. We've been down there the past few days... and have been inspired to get a TIG unit for our school. The fact that we have our frame, motors (4 CIMs and KOP gearboxes), wheels, and a few other components assembled and are still only at 60lbs probably has something to do with our newfound enthusiasm for welded aluminum... and the welds just look so pretty!

I suspect we'll have one by the end of the week, and next year hope to have students who know how to use it. Another case of FIRST inspiring something good.

Jason

Re: Student Welding?
 

In, 2004, we had the local communtiy college welding instructor do it. In 2005, a shop that does high end bicylce frames did it. This year, I have no idea who it will be. We still haven't machined our frame, which we need to do before it is welded. We have no welder at school. A capable welder for aluminum is not cheap. I have access to large Miller Stick welders (old but quite functional) but you can only do steel (technically, you can do aluminum with a special rod but it is not recommended) and I've become quite proficient at using them. I have also had about an hour and a half's experience with a flux cored wirefeed welder and I think I could do MIG just fine. It seems easy.

I'm sure I could pick up TIG if I had access to a machine, but I don't.

(As a side note, has anyone ever stick welded an aluminum robot frame? How did it come out?)

Re: Student Welding?
 

I have experience with two teams right now.

95 doesn't generally weld anything. If a piece really calls for it, we have a few options but it's a rare event. There simply isn't enough access to the machines to make it worth while.

885 is blessed with both easy access to several machines with well stocked supplies and a very capable and experienced mentor. We make much use of his ability to TIG aluminum on our frame and anything else we need bodged together. I find that the weight savings alone make it worth while. While we only have one person who is capable of making a good weld, he's very good and quite fast. I would say that it's just as fast to give him a sketch and get the final product back as it is to go and bolt it up my self. It might be a little warmer, but we've got plenty of snow out back.

Given the choice, I will always go for the welded frame. Maybe a weld will break, but I've yet to have it happen. I have had bolts loosen up, strip out, end up to short, to long, bolt heads get in the way, holes drilled wrong, etc, etc, etc. When a good welder and a FIRST frame meet, it's a wonderful thing.

Besides, it's way easier to model a weld in Inventor. Thats how bad I am in Inventor. I'll choose the process thats easier to model.
-Andy A.

Re: Student Welding?
 

Are Welding is done by the students or are shop teacher if he has time..

Re: Student Welding?
 

We have a welder and we have a mentor who does most of our welding for the robot, but the students are allowed and encouraged to learn. I did last week.

Re: Student Welding?
 

Our machine shop mentor has begun teaching me this year to weld. I found out that it is alot harder than it looks. . . . but then again he just makes it look so easy.

Re: Student Welding?
 

I am responding to a serious concern. Our team feels that students should not be welded. Welding is a painful procedure that can result in permanent damage to the student being welded. Our team, Team 1719, much prefers Branding. This procedure is much less painful and causes less permanent damage.

Stop Welding now!

(In case you had trouble, I was JOKING!)

Paul Dennis

Re: Student Welding?
 

Cyber Blue 234 does all welding in house. This is our 2nd year of doing all welding in our own personal shop. A mentor taught me last year and pretty much all the welding done on our robot is done by me. It's a great learning experience and due to a family emergency last year the mentor was unable to attend after the third week so I was thrown into the fire alone and forced to do much of it on my own. I really learned to do it well because of that. I pretty much had to. We have a Miller 180 SD Tig Welder. It's a lot of fun.

Re: Student Welding?
 

our team just got screwed over by our welder: two days before the chassis was supposed to be welded... they backed out on us :( :mad: so now we're getting it done at berkley about a week late. but it is better than a wooden chassis, i guess........

Re: Student Welding?
 

You better becareful who you say that to. I know some teams who will argue till they are blue in the face about the wood vs. metal debate.

Re: Student Welding?
 

Our team has the ability to weld aluminum, but as our advisor is the only one experienced in welding aluminum, he has done all of the welding to date. I and a few others have experience with welding steel, but don't have the time to spare to work on learning it for aluminum, as we have more pressing concerns.

Re: Student Welding?
 

We have two student welders who do most of our work. They are both seniors now, so they're training freshmen.

I just spent lunchtime buying welding supplies they asked for.

Re: Student Welding?
 

We have a TIG and MIG welder in our shop, which we used on our robot 2 years ago. However over the summer for some reason our school removed the plugs that power the welder when they rewired the school. Its sort of anoying but I dont believe in welding the robot together most the time anyways, because once its welded its welded.

Re: Student Welding?
 

i'm not to good at welding but i am trying to learn

Re: Student Welding?
 

No our mentor/teacher wont let us weld. He says that its hard to weld on aluminum and he needs to teach us or something even though last year I clearly remember him teaching 3 of the people in my class who happened to be in the club how to do so. He probably forgot but still wouldn't trust a student either especially during crunch time where every second counts.

And I personally love welding its real fun, but I wouldn't say I'm that good. I'd have to say mediocre.

Re: Student Welding?
 

Any aluminum welding we need done is done by one of our Mentors, who is a manager at a local welding company "Steel Fab". He is AMAZING. This year we don't need anything welded, but i have learned how to TIG Aluminum... I LOVE it :)

personally, i own a Millermatic 175...it's an awesome welder...i'd say i'm a pretty good at it.

Re: Student Welding?
 

We have some students who know how to weld, but we have a mentor who does it for us.

Re: Student Welding?
 

I am not sure how the welding gets done but I now how to weld

Re: Student Welding?
 

The thing is alot of people can weld and imho I think theres some people who weld better than our mentor lol but what can you do when the man in charge says something that you dont agree with. :/

Re: Student Welding?
 

We do all the welding ourselves as students :) no coachs no mentors ever touch the bot, they only make sure we are doing our work and guide us to what we should do.

Re: Student Welding?
 

Kinda funny Cam .. you neglected to say what our team does.

All our welding, is done by 3 students (2 girls :yikes: .. dead serious. Almost all the welds in the picture linked above were done by a girl) and watched over by a mentor (who was a student on the team last year). All the welding is done on a Lincon MIG with a spool gun set up for aluminum. All our steel welding, is done on a normal MIG.

We've considered having stuff taken to people who have offered to TIG, but it always ends up going into the metal shop and getting done on our MIG. Only TIG welds our bots have ever seen, were done by the 254 machine shop trailer at our regionals.

Re: Student Welding?
 

Student Welding??????:ahh: You should never weld students together. Threaded fasteners are the way to go. :p

Re: Student Welding?
 

Team 1322 has a welder and many of our kids have tried it at 1 time or another. For some odd reason the girls won't ( think it has something to do with the sparks!!!) but that soon will change!!!! For welding steel we do it ourselves but for big jobs or aluminum we have a company who donates the welding for us as long as we call them a sponsor which of course we do!!!

Re: Student Welding?
 

I said onsite done by students but it sort of depends what you mean by "site". If you mean College, then it's off site done by students as most of the assembly takes place where the equipment is; in the garage of one of our mentors.

If you look at the FIRSTwiki page for Eric (our 2005 robot), you can see it outside that garage with the garage door open so you might be able to see what we work with...

Oh, and we don't use Aluminium, we use Steel


EDIT: The pic is at http://www.firstwiki.org/Image:Ericthehedgehog.jpg