[FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

Greetings,

My name is Sean and I'm coaching FTC rookie team 5526 this season. What are some common tools and/or materials we should purchase? We've got a 5th year FRC team in our high school also, so we have the general tools one might need to build an FRC bot. Can you think of anything we might not have that we will need? Or anything we might need 2 or 3 of? Things we're like to break or work through?

Thanks for lending your experience!

Re: [FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

Offhand:

Drill press, sheet metal shear, sheet metal brake, sheet metal roll, bandsaw, table saw, carbide wheel for skil saw or table, holesaws, cordless drills, nutdrivers, t-handle allens, x-acto, razor blades, soldering iron/station, VOM/DMM, powersupply, laptop, router (both the kind that removes wood and the kind that supports a wireless network), drill bits out the wazoo, various forms of channel-locks, pliers, vice-grips, chainbreaker, punch, tap & die set, hacksaw (metal and diamond-rod), mitrebox, radial arm saw, strippers/snips, crimpers, spring clamps, angle grinder, dremel or diecutter, heatgun, DA sander/compressor, sanding drums, pop rivet gun, cable cutters, needle, thread, sewing machine, c-clamps, three-or-more-axis mill, printed circuit cad, laser printer, torch.

I think I'm forgetting a few.

Re: [FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

Goodness dude, thats more tools than my FRC team has... Seriously.

However he does have a point, one might run across the need to use those if doing very intricate engineering with the FTC bots (except the mill).... But if you want to get technical with the fun tools like CNC Lathes, Breaks, Water and Laser Jets are tons of fun to! :D

But in all seriousness we operate out of a house and have had anywhere from a drill press, belt sander, manual break, bandsaw and ones assortment of tools to accomplish our tasks. And any of the extra fancy stuff is normally sponsor owned (wish I had a water jet). I think you should be pretty set if you have an FRC team backing you.

- Andrew

Re: [FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

The only tools you absolutely NEED in FTC, in addition to to what you have from FRC are:
-->A lot of small hex keys, color coded if possible, The tetrix system uses no fewer than 3 or 4 different sizes, it is really annoying.
-->appropriately sized nut drivers (thankfully, tetrix only uses one size of nut. Nut drivers will make assembly much quicker.)
-->sheers for cutting thin plastic sheet (great for quick additions)
-->a heavy duty hole punch for making holes in the plastic sheet so that it can be zip-tied onto the robot.

As far as materials are concerned, you should invest in tetrix shafts and nylon spacers, you can hardly have enough. Also, it helps to have a few sheets of (insert favorite, non-reinforced thermoplastic here) in .125" thickness (that is the max allowed thickness) or less for both prototyping and use on the actual robot.

Re: [FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

We've used my homebuilt turntable and xy table for pulleys and (nylon) sprocket manufacture, and if we ever needed to build a sensor or more-complex pc board, we'd use (the xy) to mill the board and avoid wet chemistry processes with the kids.

FWIW, every one of those tools we've used this year for Bowled Over!

(we're in my home garage, too. The sheet metal machine was the hardest - I'd rather outsource to a sponsor next time than buy it again, but we have it for future use, now. We do use a cheapie manual 18" brake a lot, too.)

Re: [FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

When it comes to fashioning custom parts, we typically just use a sawsall or hacksaw. Metal files are essential.

Re: [FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

Hi Sean.

I'm Phil, coach for FTC2818 (G-FORCE) and mentor for FTC4240 (Techno Clovers)

I'm tracking down FTC teams in Western PA to see if you're interested in competing in a western Maryland Qualifying competition. Here are event details: http://mtrek.GEARSinc.org Please spread the word to other teams in your area.


Thanks.
Phil.

Re: [FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

Thanks for the offer Phil. Sounds like a great event.

We're about 2 hours from your event. I'll run this past my FTC team at Thursday's meeting this week.

Re: [FTC]: Common FTC tools
 

It's worth noting that our team got 2nd in the World Championship in 2010 (Get Over It) with nothing but a dull hacksaw and dremel.

Just saying, tools are useful, but they're tools, not dependencies. Bad design can't be compensated for with fantastic tools.