Shop Tools, Hand Tools, HELP?

[F22Rapture]

Originally Posted by EricH

There is one tool that I don't see on your list that could be very useful, if light duty. That is a 3D printer. There are some desktop models in the $2K range; they build plastic parts. If you can do CAD, they can make life a lot easier on smaller parts--and they can do both round and squareish parts. The BeachBots put some parts made by one we got from http://thefutureis3d.com/ on their robot last year, and those parts ain't failed yet. (Also note that this is something that could go into the classroom portion--it doesn't spit chips everywhere.)

It might be too much for most teams to buy one, but I'd like to point out that a lot of local community colleges have one, often much larger and more expensive higher-quality ones. Our local CC has one which we will hopefully have access to this year, and it's far higher quality than what we could buy on our own.

[SarahBeth]

Just one other thing I just thought of...

do you have a local technical school near you? You might be able to partner with them and they might be willing to help you guys out with machining of parts and welding. This is where you might also find access to a nice printer or computers.

F22Rapture bringing up community colleges made me think about it.

[George C]

Originally Posted by F22Rapture

It might be too much for most teams to buy one, but I'd like to point out that a lot of local community colleges have one, often much larger and more expensive higher-quality ones. Our local CC has one which we will hopefully have access to this year, and it's far higher quality than what we could buy on our own.

A great off-season activity is to build your own. http://www.reprap.org/wiki/RepRap We're in the process of building our 2nd. It costs about $600 to build one from scratch using linear bearings. The one we have draws a crowd at events. Once you have one, you can use it to print parts for more.

[MrForbes]

There's a pretty nice 3d printer in our school's Engineering classroom...we've had Engineering students on the robot team for a few years...and we have yet to figure out a robot part that we could print with it. I would look at other things to spend money on.

It sounds like you need put in some "shop class" time before you get too far along buying tools. Knowing how to use them is vital.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by squirrel

There's a pretty nice 3d printer in our school's Engineering classroom...we've had Engineering students on the robot team for a few years...and we have yet to figure out a robot part that we could print with it. I would look at other things to spend money on.

Saw this and had to comment: Skyhook's intake roller had a pair of hubs that came off a 3D printer, complete with the "standard" 6-hole bolt pattern. And the box containing Skyhook's IMU came off the same printer. And at that point, we'd had the printer about a month, maybe 2. When I was in college, we got some plugs for a robot's frame built on their high-quality one.

[rm -rf /]

If you're stuck for space and/or cash, you might consider a combo mill/lathe/drill. It won't do any of these tasks as well as the individual tools might, and it's small (but so, relatively, are the robots), but it wouldn't take up too much space and would at least provide you these capabilities at a lower cost than the individual machines.

I think that there are other teams who use one of these as (one of?) their primary machine.

A quick google search ("combo lathe mill") will show you a number. From what I've read, there's basically a price/quality relationship. The more you pay the better the tool, so, if you go this route, buy the best you can afford.

[George C]

If you're looking for larger machines, try industrial auctions. We picked up a Bridgeport in good condition for ~$750 including vice and a set of R8 collets. Just watch your voltages as many industrial machines are 600V. To meet school regualtions, we have to install a magnetic swtich as well and fix up the guarding.

[Aroki]

Originally Posted by George C

If you're looking for larger machines, try industrial auctions. We picked up a Bridgeport in good condition for ~$750 including vice and a set of R8 collets. Just watch your voltages as many industrial machines are 600V. To meet school regualtions, we have to install a magnetic swtich as well and fix up the guarding.

We have a used industrial machine store near us and got ourselves a Bridgeport for about that much, but we may be looking into converting it to cnc for about $4,000

[Nemo]

A low cost metal bending brake plus an inexpensive shear would be worth considering if you have a table to mount them on. Bent sheet parts are useful in lots of places. You can get both at Harbor Freight for a combined $200.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by squirrel

It sounds like you need put in some "shop class" time before you get too far along buying tools. Knowing how to use them is vital.

Agreed. A tool you don't know how to use is functionally useless.

[Andy A.]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

Agreed. A tool you don't know how to use is functionally useless.

At best. Just as often it's a liability to your work or your safety.

[JJackson]

Many products from RIGID come with lifetime warranty on everything including batteries....
I'm not sure if this has been added but a good tap and die set is something great to have around

[Cory]

There should be a number of threads out there with a lot of the information you're looking for. I'm not sure if they have information on specific models of tools though.

3 in 1 machines are junk. Avoid them like the plague. You're basically throwing money out that you could save for quality machinery.

I would not purchase corded drills. The technology is such in cordless drills that there is no reason to purchase corded. We got rid of a corded drill we had because it had so much torque it was unsafe for inexperienced users.

You really don't need a sliding miter saw. We have this. $200 and it works great. High quality. Throw a nice carbide tipped blade on there and you can easily cut aluminum tube (absolutely do NOT cut solid/ferrous metal with any miter saw).

We purchased one of those 20 ton presses like mentioned earlier, used it for a year, and then gave it away. It's super inconvenient due to the limited travel of the bottle jack, as well as slop in the ram because of the construction method.

I would see if you can get the sponsor to just grant you the money, as opposed to them purchasing tools off a list. It makes more sense to add tools as you discover you need them, instead of trying to cover everything up front. Inevitably you will end up with a lot of tools you rarely/never use if you do the latter.

As soon as you cover your basic tool needs and are looking for machine tools I would purchase a lathe.

[rondinol]

Have you considered a second drill bit set and a drill bit sharpener? They may seem unnecessary but with drill bits many students tend to break them and leave them laying around. Leave one out and one kind of hidden away for that moment when you need that one size bit.

Furthermore with many tools being used bits tend to get dull and there becomes a collective pile of dull drill bits which tends not to be to fun to deal with.

These aren't necessarily but useful none the less.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by George C

A great off-season activity is to build your own. http://www.reprap.org/wiki/RepRap We're in the process of building our 2nd. It costs about $600 to build one from scratch using linear bearings. The one we have draws a crowd at events. Once you have one, you can use it to print parts for more.

Might be a bit more than that--I was trying to come up with a number for how much a Mendel Basic (which is a RepRap printer) would cost if the plastic parts are already built, and came up with about $1K for everything. Admittedly, I didn't shop around much--the site I linked before, if you click on the "Store" tab, has almost all of the kit parts/electronics. The cost comes down if you find more local/cheaper sources. (The other thing about that site: The customer service is outstanding.) They ship a full-up printer, verified to work and fully assembled, for about $2000, so if a sponsor is funding it, it isn't a whole big chunk of budget.


The storage thing is something that you'll have to decide, but what I would do is be able to bring as much of the stuff as you can. That means portable toolboxes, rolling or not, that you can take out of the shop and stick in a vehicle. One set of tools probably isn't going to be enough at the competition. Bring 3. That's also where the KOP bins come in; they stack nicely under a table. When I was on a college engineering competition team, about the only thing from the shop we didn't take to competition was the workbench--we brought folding tables in the trailer instead. Figured if we didn't need it, someone else did.

Gray, I think you've got it reversed. I know of teams who've gone years with a miter/chop combo saw and no vertical bandsaw--about the only thing it can't do is turning cuts. That's why I put a Dremel (OP, take note--I'd put that at a 1 and it's fairly cheap) on the list, as it's a highly versatile tool that can help with making turning cuts. The Bridgeport instead of a drill press--Sorry, but a used Bridgeport can run in the $2500-$5000 range and that's without tooling. A 2-axis vice for a drill press can give some mill functionality; you just have to go slower when cutting a slot. And like I said, without knowing how much space they've got available, I'm willing to bet that a mill will take up an awful lot of it.