Making the Most of a Small Space
 

A while back, our team had the run of a large room in one of the tech buildings at our school. Now, however, we have been pushed into a small (12x20) space, walled off from the rest of the room by cubicle walls. We have occasional use of a classroom, but that can be sporadic. We have about 15' of inventory wall. This may not be the smallest of rooms, but it is no classroom. So. What do other teams do to make the most of a small room? Organizational techniques, storage solutions, anything.

Note: We do have access to a machine shop, so no worries there.

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

What stuff do you need to do in this area. You said you had access to a machine shop. Do you do all of your fabricating and assembly there? Is this new room going to be a mini-shop, the main team meeting room, or just a storage closet?

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

Most likely the main meeting room and storage space, with function as a workshop when we do not have access to the other classroom and machine shop. I should have been clearer; we do not always have access to the shop.

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

I know that if you install a bunch of mirrors along the walls the space will feel larger than what it is :D

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

I'd reccomend a team meeting area against one wall. Space/budget permitting, add a whiteboard for to-do lists and design sketching. Have another area solely devoted to tools. Put tool chests and the like there. Other than that, all you need is an assembly area. This area should be between the material and the tools.

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

That's only true up to a certain point. When you fill it with enough stuff, a mirrored room will look and feel a lot more crowded than it really is.

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

One of the caveats is that we are separated from our stuff by a cubicle wall. I think one of our first goals will be to get rid of it.

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

Look at the bright side, you have more than twice as much space as you will at competition.

You will likely have to store a pit structue of kinds, so, make your pit really useful and have it setup all the time. You shouldn't need many more tools that you can store in a well organized pit.
Suggestion: This year we created 2- 2X5 ft rolling tables with drawers in each. One was setup for light duty (electrical, image, ect) one was setup for heavy duty (drills, scrap metal, saws, ect.) Something like this could help alot because it can be used in your area as a table and storage device as well as at the competition. AND, you will be familar with the storage at competition which will save SO much time.

Start with a list of what items you need.
It might start like this:
-White board (and markers)
-X number of computers
-cordless tools
-Drill bits and saw blades

The cool thing about a small area is that any team will have the manpower to turn that area into something great. You can have images on every inch of space, every drawer packed with the essesentials.

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

My team has a classroom to work in however by the end of the day we have to put 90% of our stuff into a cramped back-room.

Shelving is key. If you can easily stack things on multiple levels and get things off of the floor you will gain some usable space.

Also you are going to want things playing double duties. Maybe you have a small table on wheels to elevate your robot up off the ground so that you can work on it. Well you could make room for tools underneath.

As everybody said a white board is key to planning and nice for sketching designs as they come to you.

~DK

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

We have 3 carts made out of the 80-20 material that has shelves down low in which we put little plastic bins for various things, and a large space at the bottom for the large kit bins. The top is a wood workbench, and it is also equipped with pegboard and a white board as a backdrop behind. You can see a picture of them in our pit area in the attached picture. This is pretty much all we use in our small shop space, and there is minimal packing required for competition. This way, everything at the comp is organized exactly the way it is in our shop.

PM me if you want more details...

Re: Making the Most of a Small Space
 

P.S. There are three of them - One for programming, one for electrical, and one for everything else.