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Originally Posted by Patrick Flynn
When would your team use these tools? If you can't think of a time that you think you would use these tools most likely they wouldn't end up getting used. It seems to be that if you are building your robot out of metal components that the Scroll saw and Jigsaw might go unused. But if you think that these would be used in the prototyping phase then they would be good purchases.
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Jigsaw: we've found that a jigsaw is a great tool to have for anything, really. We'll definitely use it for field construction, and it's also very useful for prototyping with cardboard and wood.
Scroll Saw: We would really like to get one in order to cut polycarbonate and various other plastics and thin sheets into shapes that aren't accommodated by straight-line cutting saws.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Flynn
I think that while this is a good list of tools that your team may use i would recommend considering what tools you used last season or wished that you many have.
The list above are some on the tools I wonder if you would actually use. IMO having a full set of taps and dies aren't needed. There are very few times in FIRST where i have even considered using a die to be necessary. And while in some rare cases it might be useful to have a full tap set why not buy multiples of the few sizes that your team uses. If you only use 1/4 20 hardware the other sized taps would be unnecessary.
I would say the same thing about the multi-tool and allen wrench sets if you think that your team may use all these different tools than this would not be a bad purchase, but i think you could better spend your money having more than one of the sizes that you use most often. Nothing is worse than losing the one needed wrench size, and having to make due.
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That's true. We used 1/4 20 taps a lot last season and we just figured maybe having a whole set would be helpful and not constrict us - if we had other bolts we wanted to use, then we could, etc.
As far as Allen wrench sets, we mostly use 5/32 and 1/4 but I haven't really seen a place where we can just buy a load of 5/32 allen wrenches or something. So sets made sense.[/quote]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Flynn
Lastly the work benches, I think that your team could built much cheaper ones that would better fit your work space. Buying some 2x4's and making some tables could be a fun team activity allowing some newer members to get acquainted to your teams tools and or shop.
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That's definitely true. We'll keep that in mind. Good idea.
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Originally Posted by CalTran
I don't believe this stuff has been mentioned, but how's your electrical tools looking? A good soldering iron, pair of sharp diagonal cutters, auto strippers, and preferably an ideal crimper will alleviate most of your electrical worries in season.
As well, if you don't have a budget set aside for this, make sure before you go buying stuff you might use, that you replenish stock of materials you did use and probably will use.
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In the list I included a soldering station, strippers, and a crimper
Yes, replenishing metals & other materials we'll use comes before our tools budget.