Making the Most of a Small Space

[steelerborn]

I know that if you install a bunch of mirrors along the walls the space will feel larger than what it is

[548swimmer]

I'd reccomend a team meeting area against one wall. Space/budget permitting, add a whiteboard for to-do lists and design sketching. Have another area solely devoted to tools. Put tool chests and the like there. Other than that, all you need is an assembly area. This area should be between the material and the tools.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by steelerborn

I know that if you install a bunch of mirrors along the walls the space will feel larger than what it is

That's only true up to a certain point. When you fill it with enough stuff, a mirrored room will look and feel a lot more crowded than it really is.

[ENIAC]

One of the caveats is that we are separated from our stuff by a cubicle wall. I think one of our first goals will be to get rid of it.

[Jeffy]

Look at the bright side, you have more than twice as much space as you will at competition.

You will likely have to store a pit structue of kinds, so, make your pit really useful and have it setup all the time. You shouldn't need many more tools that you can store in a well organized pit.
Suggestion: This year we created 2- 2X5 ft rolling tables with drawers in each. One was setup for light duty (electrical, image, ect) one was setup for heavy duty (drills, scrap metal, saws, ect.) Something like this could help alot because it can be used in your area as a table and storage device as well as at the competition. AND, you will be familar with the storage at competition which will save SO much time.

Start with a list of what items you need.
It might start like this:
-White board (and markers)
-X number of computers
-cordless tools
-Drill bits and saw blades

The cool thing about a small area is that any team will have the manpower to turn that area into something great. You can have images on every inch of space, every drawer packed with the essesentials.

[DinerKid]

My team has a classroom to work in however by the end of the day we have to put 90% of our stuff into a cramped back-room.

Shelving is key. If you can easily stack things on multiple levels and get things off of the floor you will gain some usable space.

Also you are going to want things playing double duties. Maybe you have a small table on wheels to elevate your robot up off the ground so that you can work on it. Well you could make room for tools underneath.

As everybody said a white board is key to planning and nice for sketching designs as they come to you.

~DK

[Alex2614]

We have 3 carts made out of the 80-20 material that has shelves down low in which we put little plastic bins for various things, and a large space at the bottom for the large kit bins. The top is a wood workbench, and it is also equipped with pegboard and a white board as a backdrop behind. You can see a picture of them in our pit area in the attached picture. This is pretty much all we use in our small shop space, and there is minimal packing required for competition. This way, everything at the comp is organized exactly the way it is in our shop.

PM me if you want more details...

[Alex2614]

P.S. There are three of them - One for programming, one for electrical, and one for everything else.