Ghetto Goal

[Cyberguy34000]

Well we could have built the regulation field but our build space is temporary and very, very small. So anything non-robot that we build has to be either small, or serve a double use (We're using a half-size ramp/platform that doubles as a worktable). We've also built the side goal, so one of the last pieces that needed to be built was the center goal.

The solution I came up with is actually pretty cool. Hang it from a basketball goal! They are in gyms everywhere, and the dimensions are consistant!

I just finished building it an hour or so ago and it works like a charm, and barely moves at all when it is hit with a ball. I'll be posting pictures soon (no one has a camera right now, and the google camera is dead ).

Construction
The basketball rim on the inside is 18 inches in diameter + an inch or so for the thickness of the rim, so it's about 19 inches across. The rim is also exactly 120 inches off of the ground. The top of the Aim High center goal is 117 inches off the ground (8'6'' = 102 inches + 15'' radius = 117), so that leaves 3 inches between the top of the rim and the top of the hanging center goal.

The construction I ended up using is a 40*40*1/4'' plywood with a 30'' hole right in the center. Then we cut a long (2*19*1/2'') slot 1 inch above the hole. Above this I screwed in a 20*6*6 board with a 10 degree notch in it. I also notched the bottom corners of the slot to make it fit more snugly on the goal.

The result looks something like this:

```[```````````````````
---[___```````````--+``
|``::::````<---`````/```
|```::````````````/````
|`````````````````````
|`````````````````````
``````````````````````
basketball```````center`
``hoop``````````goal``

All that's needed to mount it is to just slide the basketball rim through the slot, and it fits quite snugly. The net also bunches up quite nicely underneath, so it doesn't get in the way. And when we need to mount the green light box on top we'll just screw it on above the thick piece of plywood. And that's pretty much it for the design.


So what do you guys think?

[Greg Marra]

Very nice!

We did something similar. The room we practice in has a few chin-up bars on the wall because it is also the wrestling room. We built our center goal so that it can be rested between two of the chin-up bars and be the correct height to practice on!

[Taylor]

We have enough space to build half a field, but after building the platform and two corner goals we ran out of lumber. The starting boxes and HP areas are masking tape on the floor, and the center goal is this huge X on the wall. (shooting isn't a high priority for us just yet)
By the way, outstanding artistry on that pic of the basketball-goal assembly!