Re: End of Year Purchases
 

The mill and lathe are very powerful tools that can be used to do lots of things. You do have to know what you're doing, but some internet research or a good book on metalworking should cover the basics of its capabilities, setting up, operation, accessories, etc. It definitely helps to have someone with prior experience to stand over your shoulder, in my team's case, it was my friend who has a mill at home. Is there any machine shops around? They might be willing to send someone over to get you started. I'm pretty sure we got our mill/lathe from Harbor Freight, decent price, average quality, but all the accessories (mill bits, mill clamp, chucks, cutters, etc.) were donated by a machine shop, and they make all the difference in our work. Hopefully someone else will jump in here with specific reccomendations on where to buy, etc.)

Best of luck,
-Chris

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

Maybe you should look into getting all your cutting tools diamond coated, it would greatly increase their life, and maybe reduce the heat from using them. (Less friction that isn't directly involved in cutting) Just getting some aluminum stock for next year could eat up that much money easily and be worth it too. While you're at it you could experiment with fiberglass. As for additional power tools... I can't help you, all we have is two (old) single speed drills, a broken dremel (barely runs, it's so fried), and an old busted drill press. (My father and I also brought in our miter saw, it really saved our butts) How about aluminum welding equipment? Pricey and useful. For the computers, I'd recommend getting a Dell dual proc (maybe dual proc, dual core) server with lots of RAM and SCSI RAID for your animation team and maybe web serving. A couple of nice old 802.11b wireless switches with high gain antennas would be great for throwing up a network at competition to keep a scouting database and other info on. Although there is a rule against it at competitions, (I don't know why) you could look into one of those wireless broadband things for Internet access in various spots. Some dual core laptops using the Intel Core Duo wouldn't go wrong, massive battery life, great for, say a computerized scouting database with automatic ranking functions for choosing alliance partners. (I'm sorry, I used to be diehard AMD, but Core Duo has me almost converted)

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

I snipped because I'm only addressing that section of the reply.

If your sensor experiences didn't go well, that's all the more reason to do this! Once you figure out most sensors, they're pretty straightforward and you can find a myriad of uses for a good sensor grouping, get some high resolution stuff, stockpile it too, nothings worse than having a sensor-dependent function that doesn't have a spare sensor when the first one goes bad :)

Buy scrap material, lots of it, of all kinds to have around, no such thing as too much. Having plenty of stuff to be able to build simple things quickly is great for teaching with. What about welding equipment?

Ok, so perhaps I addressed more than the sensor thing, what can I say? :)

Extra stuff is great for teaching members things though, you don't have to worry about waste as much, so the inevitable mistakes you make as you go aren't a problem, and you learn that much more.

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

Dude, all the cool kids make their own Lathe bits, thats most of the fun and it gives you so many more options in what you can make on your lathe when you have custom cutters.

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

Some quick electronic things that might start to add up:
A Good Digital Multimeter
A Good Tachometer
Wire Stockpile for the season

Also, if you have a CAD or animation team, consider a high end workstation for them to share, since school computers never tend to be very well suited to CAD work.

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

I would say look into raw materials. Aluminum and lexan can get pretty expensive. Plus you'll have the material ready to build with next year.

Tools no one seems to have mentioned - hand grinder, saws-all.

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

Im electrical. But I would say, a good multimeter and some potentiometers... those are very commonly used on my team and i saw many of them on other robots too so just my 2 cents

Pavan

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

-Mini Lathe and tools
-Mini Mill and tools
-Materials - bars, rods, sheets - Aluminum, Plastics
-ANSI #25 chain or any item you use alot
-Grinders are so useful, get cutoff wheels as well
-I like the table saw idea - maybe we need one too
-Extra IFI relays
-Extra IFI speed controllers
-Oscilliscope would be interesting
-Computer supplies - what does the average road warrior take with them? Scanners, Digital camera, Printer, bags, etc...
-Parts for an off season, demo bot?
-If it was us, I'd go buy about 2000 1/4-20 nuts and bolts of various sizes and 10000 pop rivits of different sizes - so we wouldn't run out any time soon.
-Tap and Die set - a nice one
-BIG Arbor Press and a set of broaches for keyways.
-Does anyone know if the table top breaks and shears are any good at www.grizzly.com ? That could be fun, and easy to learn the basics.
-Big Ol' Box of Safety glasses and First Aid kits (Those are build supplies, right?)
-If you had a mentor willing to try it out, a small home foundry would be interesting - cast your own parts... but that might be a little out there, and SAFETY and KNOWLEDGE are a MUST.

I think I spent WAY more than you have...

Let me ask this - what do you want to do or try next year?

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

I'd like to thank everyone for their input. I took it all into consideration, and we made our final selections today. We decided to go without the mill/lathe, but it's on the list of things to buy next year as soon as we get some more mentors that can teach the team how to use it. This summer we're going to focus on trying to get someone trained in welding, so that all welds can be made on-site rather than at a fab shop. We also passed on any electronic parts for the robots, they'll be purchased as we need them. We set aside a little bit of money to try and get some raw materials, but we're not sure where to find what we need. Anyway, here's the list we came up with:

Craftsman 12 in. Band Saw
Craftsman 15 in. Drill Press
Craftsman 10 in. Table Saw
Craftsman Professional Laser Trac™ 10 in. Radial Arm Saw
Craftsman 29 pc. Titanium Coated Drill Bit Set
Craftsman Professional Universal Drill Press Work Center
Craftsman Laser Trac Laser Attachment
Craftsman 244pc Mechanics Toolset
Drill Doctor Sharpener, DD500X
DeWalt Cordless Radio with built-in Charger
DeWalt 18.0 volt Cordless Drill/Driver Kit
Assorted replacement blades/parts
Assorted hand tools
Extension cords
Power strips/boxes
Another set of sawhorses
A ton of a single-size nut/bolt (Size has yet to be determined)
A ton of crimp-on connectors
2 or 3 of every Vex part we can get our hands on

Some of you might be wondering about the Vex purchase, it seems over the top. Well, here's the plan. At the first meeting of next year, the team is going to begin planning for a Vex competition. At the second meeting they will finalize it, split into 2 teams, and begin a 2-week build period for whatever game they decide to play. In two weeks they hold a competition as a fundrasier/community event and have a good time. Not only will this be fun, it will also give new members some experience with designing a good robot (though on a small scale) and it will build teamwork. Sounds like a good idea to me, any suggestions?

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

A rotex punch! We had access to one and it saved our bacon. When the bot is overweight and you need to swiss cheeze it, nothing beats a Rotex Punch!

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

Didn't see this post til today but maybe if you still have a chance, a good tool would be a hydrolic crimper for those larger #8 - #4 lugs used for the batteries and breaker panels.

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

If you guys do either of the Autodesk Awards, more RAM for the computers is always a good thing.

Re: End of Year Purchases
 

TOOL CHEST!!! If you are buying tools, you have to organize them, as well as leaving room to expand your collection of tools (it will happen).
WELDER? Think about a Tig or Mig welder for welding aluminum, especially for making a tubular robot frame.
Also get an assortment of alloy steel bolts;1/4-20, 10-32, 8-32, 6-32, 4-40. Varying lengths from 1" to 3/8", by eights of an inch.