Team 294's Memorial Moving Weekend

[ratdude747]

I'd buy a mini drill press, mini band saw, mini lathe, and perhaps mini-mill if you don't have them already... it would all fit in a small area, perhaps on a well-built table. Don't forget to add a mini-vice, as that is more helpful than one would think.

[Littleboy]

And with all those mini tools, you can build a minibot.

[kaliken]

Thanks for the great words of encouragement and advice. This upcoming year is going to be great as it will add constraints that should help streamline some of our decisions and hopefully simplify designs. It may make some things we usually took for granted a bit harder to achieve. But overall it will be a good experience for the team to go through.

We will be without a mill or lathe, but we have already moved a drill press, a vise, a chop saw, a grinder, and small vertical band saw into the new room. So with those we will have some basic machine functionality. Coupled with several hand drills and some good measurement tools we can get a lot done.

I do like the idea of a mini mill or lathe, especially the lathe. Considering how many shafts and spacers that are made on our lathe, the lathe would be the one piece of equipment I am thinking about getting a small replacement for. I would feel terrible asking for every little thing to be made by our sponsors as we typically only send out complicated parts (CNC, waterjet, and welding) to our sponsors and we machine the rest (brackets, spacers, shafts, etc). Hmm looks like I will have to look at our budget...

[EricH]

Originally Posted by kaliken

I do like the idea of a mini mill or lathe, especially the lathe. Considering how many shafts and spacers that are made on our lathe, the lathe would be the one piece of equipment I am thinking about getting a small replacement for. I would feel terrible asking for every little thing to be made by our sponsors as we typically only send out complicated parts (CNC, waterjet, and welding) to our sponsors and we machine the rest (brackets, spacers, shafts, etc). Hmm looks like I will have to look at our budget...

Has anybody on the team taken one of the El Camino machine shop courses, or could they get into one?

[kaliken]

Originally Posted by EricH

Has anybody on the team taken one of the El Camino machine shop courses, or could they get into one?

We have at least 2 students that have gone through the course and we plan to have more go through the class this summer. So the El Camino JC shop is great resource. Only bummer is that I have been informed by one of the teams parents that there are plans to temporarily close the El Camino shop in January due to... renovations!!!! d'oh!!!!

I will seriously look at the Sherline models as a small sized replacement that can then be used as a supplemental machine for subsequent years when we are back in our normal shop.

[Peck]

for an on topic religious reference: "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." JOB 1:21 (i read this thread and my brain kept coming back to that verse). In this instance, he is doing both at once.

[Metalcrafters]

Let us know if you need anything, our shop is always open to teams in need of machining. We are always turning handles and making chips!
Just ask....we never turn away.

We are only 1/2 mile from one of your sponsors.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by kaliken

Thanks for the great words of encouragement and advice. This upcoming year is going to be great as it will add constraints that should help streamline some of our decisions and hopefully simplify designs. It may make some things we usually took for granted a bit harder to achieve. But overall it will be a good experience for the team to go through.

We will be without a mill or lathe, but we have already moved a drill press, a vise, a chop saw, a grinder, and small vertical band saw into the new room. So with those we will have some basic machine functionality. Coupled with several hand drills and some good measurement tools we can get a lot done.

I do like the idea of a mini mill or lathe, especially the lathe. Considering how many shafts and spacers that are made on our lathe, the lathe would be the one piece of equipment I am thinking about getting a small replacement for. I would feel terrible asking for every little thing to be made by our sponsors as we typically only send out complicated parts (CNC, waterjet, and welding) to our sponsors and we machine the rest (brackets, spacers, shafts, etc). Hmm looks like I will have to look at our budget...

We have 2-3 sherline machines (and just converted one to CNC). They are pretty handy for making spacers.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

We have 2-3 sherline machines (and just converted one to CNC). They are pretty handy for making spacers.

Seconded. During my years as a student on 1747, I had one of the shop's 7 lathes dedicated to making aluminum spacers. What I would do is drill out a rod of Aluminum as far as my drill bit would do, and as needed, use a cutoff bit to cut spacers as needed. In addition to producing better spacers, it was also faster then a band saw.

I also had a lathe dedicated to making PVC spacers... same deal, only no drilling required.

294: I strongly suggest getting a mini-lathe... You'd be surprised how much can be done with one.