[FTC]: Common FTC tools

[kz2zx]

Offhand:

Drill press, sheet metal shear, sheet metal brake, sheet metal roll, bandsaw, table saw, carbide wheel for skil saw or table, holesaws, cordless drills, nutdrivers, t-handle allens, x-acto, razor blades, soldering iron/station, VOM/DMM, powersupply, laptop, router (both the kind that removes wood and the kind that supports a wireless network), drill bits out the wazoo, various forms of channel-locks, pliers, vice-grips, chainbreaker, punch, tap & die set, hacksaw (metal and diamond-rod), mitrebox, radial arm saw, strippers/snips, crimpers, spring clamps, angle grinder, dremel or diecutter, heatgun, DA sander/compressor, sanding drums, pop rivet gun, cable cutters, needle, thread, sewing machine, c-clamps, three-or-more-axis mill, printed circuit cad, laser printer, torch.

I think I'm forgetting a few.

[Andrew Remmers]

Originally Posted by kz2zx

Offhand:

Drill press, sheet metal shear, sheet metal brake, sheet metal roll, bandsaw, table saw, carbide wheel for skil saw or table, holesaws, cordless drills, nutdrivers, t-handle allens, x-acto, razor blades, soldering iron/station, VOM/DMM, powersupply, laptop, router (both the kind that removes wood and the kind that supports a wireless network), drill bits out the wazoo, various forms of channel-locks, pliers, vice-grips, chainbreaker, punch, tap & die set, hacksaw (metal and diamond-rod), mitrebox, radial arm saw, strippers/snips, crimpers, spring clamps, angle grinder, dremel or diecutter, heatgun, DA sander/compressor, sanding drums, pop rivet gun, cable cutters, needle, thread, sewing machine, c-clamps, three-or-more-axis mill, printed circuit cad, laser printer, torch.

I think I'm forgetting a few.

Goodness dude, thats more tools than my FRC team has... Seriously.

However he does have a point, one might run across the need to use those if doing very intricate engineering with the FTC bots (except the mill).... But if you want to get technical with the fun tools like CNC Lathes, Breaks, Water and Laser Jets are tons of fun to!

But in all seriousness we operate out of a house and have had anywhere from a drill press, belt sander, manual break, bandsaw and ones assortment of tools to accomplish our tasks. And any of the extra fancy stuff is normally sponsor owned (wish I had a water jet). I think you should be pretty set if you have an FRC team backing you.

- Andrew

[PAR_WIG1350]

The only tools you absolutely NEED in FTC, in addition to to what you have from FRC are:
-->A lot of small hex keys, color coded if possible, The tetrix system uses no fewer than 3 or 4 different sizes, it is really annoying.
-->appropriately sized nut drivers (thankfully, tetrix only uses one size of nut. Nut drivers will make assembly much quicker.)
-->sheers for cutting thin plastic sheet (great for quick additions)
-->a heavy duty hole punch for making holes in the plastic sheet so that it can be zip-tied onto the robot.

As far as materials are concerned, you should invest in tetrix shafts and nylon spacers, you can hardly have enough. Also, it helps to have a few sheets of (insert favorite, non-reinforced thermoplastic here) in .125" thickness (that is the max allowed thickness) or less for both prototyping and use on the actual robot.

[kz2zx]

Originally Posted by Joyride_67_1902

(except the mill)

We've used my homebuilt turntable and xy table for pulleys and (nylon) sprocket manufacture, and if we ever needed to build a sensor or more-complex pc board, we'd use (the xy) to mill the board and avoid wet chemistry processes with the kids.

FWIW, every one of those tools we've used this year for Bowled Over!

(we're in my home garage, too. The sheet metal machine was the hardest - I'd rather outsource to a sponsor next time than buy it again, but we have it for future use, now. We do use a cheapie manual 18" brake a lot, too.)

[normalmutant]

When it comes to fashioning custom parts, we typically just use a sawsall or hacksaw. Metal files are essential.