Purchasable Tricks and Easy Fixes

[JesseK]

I have to warn you that there are many red herrings in any sort of list you'd get. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch -- but there are cheap lunches. For example, I'm willing to bet my BBQ pulled turkey lunch today that many, many hours were spent searching for an air tank that would fit the needs of a team within our rules before the white fiberglass ones were actually found. Many other 'tricks' (such as the Dark Soul Chain Breaker) have caveats like "#25 chain is the ficklest $#*! chain you'll ever use -- 1 degree out of alignment or 1/4" too much slop and it's guaranteed to come off!".

That being said, the Dark Soul tool worked great until we lost it, heh. We're going to get a new one soon. The caveats: #25 chain is the ficklest $#*! chain you'll ever use. The sprocket teeth are so shallow that even the slightest imperfections in your robot production process will show up at the most inconvenient times.

If you need thin, strong boards that can hold the weight of a robot (like ramps for 2007), then honeycombed fiberglass may be a good fit. We've also use it for our electronics boards since 2007. This year we might use something different. The caveats: it shears very easily, so use wide washers at every mount point; it is not meant to be a structural member that can withstand impacts, so the weight it carries should be light during all interactive times of play.