MILWAUKEE TABLE TOP TOOLS BANNED?

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

Squirrel
I made the same mistake...
Read Milwaukee as a brand of tools..

double doh..

:0)

y'all weren't the only ones

[maltz1881]

This has to be a venue rule. Very weird. FIRST would have sent out a mass stating otherwise. As week 2 begins, can I please ask all of you to PLEASE PLEASE be aware of what you are doing in the pits. We had 2 near misses at Kettering in week 1. Teams that have those large arms are testing them out and some aren't being aware of the surroundings. Remember safety glasses at ALL times in the pits.

[Chris is me]

This isn't true FIRST wide at all. We are happily running our band saw and drill press in the pits and many teams at WPI have made use of both of these.

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by maltz1881

This has to be a venue rule. Very weird.

Is this the first year for the Wisconsin Regional at US Cellular Arena?

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by The Lucas

Is this the first year for the Wisconsin Regional at US Cellular Arena?

Nope, it's been there every year. This has never been a rule before, including the three times 1625 has attended.

[Mark Holschuh]

In addition to benchtop tools, we were told that teams couldn't use stepladders as well. Some teams were not allowed to carry theirs in to the arena.

[WRENCHMOM]

Originally Posted by Mark Holschuh

In addition to benchtop tools, we were told that teams couldn't use stepladders as well. Some teams were not allowed to carry theirs in to the arena.

The unfortunate thing about this is that they took away the ladders because of safety reasons and when we were walking through the pits, you should have seen what people were standing on instead of the proper and safe tool.....a ladder! Example: saw one team standing on a cart with four wheels to hang their banner. RIDICULOUS!!!!

[DeAnnaC]

We have not yet gotten the detailed instructions on machine shop/tool use for next week's St. Louis Regional at the Chaifetz Arena, but my guess is that it will be the same as the last 2 years: no 'power tools' in the pit (cordless drill is ok). All machining has to be taken to the machining desk, they send it with a volunteer via golf cart to a facility 2 blocks away for the work then return it back to the team. This is probably the smallest (field size/reg season) facility that we've been to for FIRST, so I'm not sure if that is part of the reasoning?

When the St. Louis Regional was at the Family Arena, there was usually a full size tractor trailer filled with equipment and volunteers from NASA to do the machining for us and they were ok with tools in the pit.

I would think each venue could set their own rules for food/drink/tools..

DeAnna

[PinionTwister]

As a member of the Wisconsin Regional Planning Committee, please know that these comments will be discussed at length before our next event.

Personally, I was not aware that this was happening or I would have persued this myself during the event. Many good points from the teams concerning ladders and the use of tools and the reasons that we have them.

It was a good regional nonetheless.

NOTE: This is NOT the first time this regional was held at the US Cellular Arena.

[maddoctor90]

We were told we couldn't even use a hacksaw in the pit at the Wisconsin Regional without getting permission. Some teams were apparently not told/aware of this. So, I am not sure exactly what was up. I do know that because teams could not use the appropriate tools for the job in the pits, I saw a lot of unsafe things going on. For instance, teams standing on objects to set up there pits instead of ladders.

[Eagleeyedan]

In the meeting for safety captains, they said that SOME tools were banned but not things like power drills. They said if your tool was in question to ask one of them as they were the ones setting the rules. They also said that they had a tool shop for all teams to use. I guess it's a little late for this post though.

[J93Wagner]

Originally Posted by Eagleeyedan

In the meeting for safety captains, they said that SOME tools were banned but not things like power drills. They said if your tool was in question to ask one of them as they were the ones setting the rules. They also said that they had a tool shop for all teams to use. I guess it's a little late for this post though.

Could you please be a bit more specific as to what exactly was banned besides ladders and band saws if only for clarification?

[big1boom]

Originally Posted by maddoctor90

We were told we couldn't even use a hacksaw in the pit at the Wisconsin Regional without getting permission.

That is news too me. We had our sawzall, power drills, heat gun, box cutters, and dremel. The UL Safety guys liked our pit safety so much that we were runner up to the safety award, so they must not have had a problem with our tools.

[Eagleeyedan]

Originally Posted by J93Wagner

Could you please be a bit more specific as to what exactly was banned besides ladders and band saws if only for clarification?

They didn't specify any but they just said that small hand tools are acceptable but nothing like a power miter saw. Like I said before, they said if any tool wa in question to come to the safety judges and ask if it was okay.

[Eagleeyedan]

Originally Posted by maddoctor90

We were told we couldn't even use a hacksaw in the pit at the Wisconsin Regional without getting permission. Some teams were apparently not told/aware of this. So, I am not sure exactly what was up. I do know that because teams could not use the appropriate tools for the job in the pits, I saw a lot of unsafe things going on. For instance, teams standing on objects to set up there pits instead of ladders.

Wow, who told you that? We used a hacksaw to cut some item.