Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

Our kicker release was hanging up and the team was looking for new materials, nylon, Teflon, tool steel, transparent aluminum, etc to make it grip, yet give.

Then one of our mentors, Rizzo (who you all know from his years as a ref) come up with "The Mighty Wire Tie" fix.



Who knew that one of the most critical part of the robot would be a pair of half cent wire ties?
(Yes, you can bet that it will have a prominent place on our BOM)
((And yes, it continues our tradition of having a VEX component as an important part of our robot :yikes: ))

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

ALL HAIL ZIP TIES!!! :D

so useful, yet simple objects...

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

Earlier this season, I was prototyping an arm that we have since decided not to use. While I was building it, I found a piece of square aluminium tube that was the right length with properly spaced holes so I decided to use it. But, I messed up with the band saw and cut on the wrong side of one of the holes ::ouch::. I fixed it by cutting the hole tat got cut off from the end that I meant to cut off and reattaching it to the other piece with zip-ties. I don't recommend such a use of zip-ties in competition, but it was a stronger connection than I could have gotten with something like duct tape.
-
Zip-ties Rock!!!!!!

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

Heh, in 2006 we ended up weighing in a little heavy at competition (had to remove a half a pound).

I quickly started pointing at fasteners that were much too large for their application, and had the students start replacing them with zipties. They thought I was crazy! :yikes: Hey it worked!

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

We're connecting our kicking springs with zip ties at the moment. Special zip-ties. You get the zip-tie heads in a bag and the strips come in 50 foot spools.

Yay for zip ties!

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

Zip ties are the duct tape of competition robotics.

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

A few years ago at Palmetto I helped the team next to us in the pits make a replacement bearing block out of nothing but zip ties. I should have taken a photo of that wonderful Macgyver job...

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

The only thing that I have found that can come close to matching the awsomeness of zip ties is VELCRO! Every piece of our electronics board is held on by velcro. It is light weight, quick removal/ replacement, and gives little shock asorbance.

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

We must have kicked a ball to hard because our angled wooden boot snaped so the zip tie was needed to keep it on. What would FIRST be without zip ties?

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

We're now using a kind of "super" zip-ties for our ball fence. You get a spool of zip-tie 'strapping' and a bag of zip tie heads and make them whatever size you want.

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

Sounds cool.
How about a supplier website and/or part number?

Thanks....
(I'm sure you have it on your BOM) :)

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

The best story I have involving zip ties was at the FTC Oklahoma Regional. I was the second round of finals and our ally had taken some heavy hits which knocked one of their key components loose. I asked if zip ties would help and they said yes. So we were allowed a 30 second pit stop to repair their bot before the second match of finals...

Thanks to zip ties our ally's robot worked amazingly well... :D

If only we had remembered to turn on our robot too... -.-'

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

We went pretty heavy on the zip ties this year for wire routing... So heavy, in fact, that we got a "zip tie gun" - literally a small, plastic gun-like contraption. Stick the end in one side, and pump the trigger - it tightens the zip tie, and when it's tight enough automatically cuts it with a nice, flush cut so you don't have a small, sharp bit sticking out.

The gun was probably my favorite tool this year :)

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

Alas I do not know, it was something that another coach brought in from his job site, and we haven't put our BOM together yet. I will update once I find out though!

Zip-tie guns save so many cuts and scratches (and time) when working on a robot it's not a luxury but a necessity!

Reusable zip ties are awesome during the development phase, where wires are being added and removed.

Re: Behold the mighty wire tie!
 

Search, zip tie guns are pretty common.