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Unread 11-12-2008, 22:02
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Aarnat Aarnat is offline
Senior Captain
AKA: Aaron
FRC #2199 (Robo-Lions)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Rookie Year: 2007
Location: Eldersburg, MD
Posts: 24
Aarnat will become famous soon enoughAarnat will become famous soon enough
Re: Team 869 In Need of Some Advice

That partnership you had with the machine shop is something that only a few teams are blessed with. I’m sincerely glad you had that opportunity. Obviously, the bad news is you don't have that anymore or machines for that matter. The good news is that you can take that experience with you elsewhere, including into your careers.

Our team, 2199, is in its 3 year. We used the old workshop in our high school that was rarely used. It had band saws, drill presses, and hand tools and managed fairly well to build a great robot. We also have been steadily adding our own set of hand tools. This year, new classes were created and now use that area daily (and I know because I'm in that class) and because of the lack of space to lock things up to keep everything secure, we had to move. Fortunately, last year we were given an empty warehouse space, managed by one of the student's father, walking distance (15 minutes) from the school. Getting that area was accomplished just by asking. Your team can go around the local area and find a new work space.

We moved there to practice near the end of the build season. This year, the father and his business then let us use his work area as well as keep access to the bigger warehouse room we practiced in. We have already started to clean up the space, organized it, and apply for grants to fill the space with tools.

Anyway the point is:
-Find a space through a massive organized “public relations” movement to all the local shops and warehouses
- If that doesn’t work find a team member's garage (we did our first two years when we were working on the weekends and couldn't get into the school)
-Clean up your area
-Buy essential tools with team’s money, grants, or sponsorships.
-You have 22 days or less
-You may not have the fanciest equipment, but you can still build a reliable robot. We have and so has many other teams.

Good Luck!