Recommended Tools and Machinery for Your Team's Machine Shop

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Hmm a lot of the items on sale we found were quite old. Many people were selling tool chests and cabinets as is with many hand tools inside. I would hope the older stuff was still higher quality.

Old Craftsman was still high quality. Most is made in China now...or just overpriced and not very good.

Originally Posted by ksafin

So, I don't really understand what's wrong with HF tools..

We've had a few HF power tools for a few months and there's been nothing wrong with them. The drill press drills, the miter saw saws, and the grinder grinds. They never broke, had any safety issues, or otherwise been a concern.

While they probably could work smoother (the miter saw just has a weird feel to me, after using a Ryobi last year), they work fine and we don't have any major issues with them.

Wait until you've had it all for a year or so and if you use it hard enough it'll be broken or developing issues.

If it works for you that's great, but there's certainly better stuff out there.

[Nemo]

Earlier this year we bought the Porter Cable Vertical Band Saw that Lowes currently has for $450. It's annoying that you basically can't find a bandsaw under $5-10K that runs in the 500-1000 ft/s range that you're supposed to run when cutting aluminum. I got this one because it looked decent, and it has a 1600 ft/s speed. Most of the low price vertical saws run at about 2500 ft/s since people typically want to cut wood. We tossed an 18 tooth per inch bimetal blade on this saw, and we've been pretty happy with it so far.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Nemo

Earlier this year we bought the Porter Cable Vertical Band Saw that Lowes currently has for $450. It's annoying that you basically can't find a bandsaw under $5-10K that runs in the 500-1000 ft/s range that you're supposed to run when cutting aluminum. I got this one because it looked decent, and it has a 1600 ft/s speed. Most of the low price vertical saws run at about 2500 ft/s since people typically want to cut wood. We tossed an 18 tooth per inch bimetal blade on this saw, and we've been pretty happy with it so far.

Would an ordinary (too fast) bandsaw with a VFD have worked?

[gabrielau23]

Our school lives off of the Band Saws and Drill presses. We introduced some new stuff last year, though, more on that later. We have three band saws. One for wood and two for metal. One is a horizontal (love that one <3 ) and the other vertical one I'm not too fond of. They're simply invaluable. This year, we used a 3D printer for some of our motor mounts and pulleys, and the pieces held up quite well. Now mind you, I wouldn't make load bearing pieces out of these parts, but for sensors, motor mounts, and pulleys they're beautiful. We also started using a mill and MIGHT be using the lathe this year.
One thing we ALWAYS use in the shop is the 7/16 nut driver/ratcheting wrench. The heat bar was mentioned already, we used it to make a custom "dustpan" (it literally looks exactly like a dustpan, except sturdier, with cutaways, and a bit bigger) out of polycarb.

[DanMystery]

We want to make a plan for the following year or couple years (depending on how much we will need) to build up the machine shop. What machinery you guys think a machine shop should have?

[Cory]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...t=machine+shop

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...t=machine+shop

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...t=machine+shop

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ight=machining

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&highlight=CNC

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&highlight=CNC

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&highlight=CNC

Some of this info is a little old and may not apply to your budget/space constraints, but there is a lot of good info already on Chief.

[ehfeinberg]

First, what type of tools do you have now? Its hard to suggest different tools if we don't know what you already have.

There are already a bunch of great threads regarding what tools to have for machine shops. Such as this or this

However, since every team is different, your circumstances are sure to be different then the teams in the linked posts so feel free to ask further questions. These posts are just a place to start!

Edit: looks like Cory beat me to the links... I was actually going through his past posts to find the different treads. The first two he linked are really good.

[DanMystery]

1st Thank you for a fast response. I'm surprised to see it so quickly.
2nd We have two drills, electric screw drivers, circular saw, large wheel band saw, drill press (its small and makes it hard to hold small pieces to make holes in them) jigsaw, sets of ranches, hammers, and other regular tools. We don't have any more advanced machinery. We are separately planning to organize funding and space therefore if you can propose machinery with good space and budget availability.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by DanMystery

1st Thank you for a fast response. I'm surprised to see it so quickly.
2nd We have two drills, electric screw drivers, circular saw, large wheel band saw, drill press (its small and makes it hard to hold small pieces to make holes in them) jigsaw, sets of ranches, hammers, and other regular tools. We don't have any more advanced machinery. We are separately planning to organize funding and space therefore if you can propose machinery with good space and budget availability.

Aside from what you listed, there isn't much more barebones stuff needed to build a robot.

The next most useful items can be a larger bandsaw, an arbor press, and a small lathe (and someone who knows how to use it!). This is just my opinion though. More drills and some rivet guns help too. Mills and lathes are great but if you do not currently have space/funds for them, you can definitely invest in good measuring tools and make some great parts on your drill press and bandsaw. I cannot believe how often I meet teams who do not own calipers and such.

Good luck!

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Aside from what you listed, there isn't much more barebones stuff needed to build a robot.

The next most useful items can be a larger bandsaw, an arbor press, and a small lathe (and someone who knows how to use it!). This is just my opinion though. More drills and some rivet guns help too.

Good luck!

A larger drill press with a 2-axis vise attachment would also help. (Or just the 2-axis vise; that would probably help with the holding small parts problem.) That gives a bit of an improvement to positional accuracy, as well as holding parts being drilled.

A chopsaw might also be a good investment; it's good at making large pieces of raw tube stock into more manageable lengths, and at the proper angle for use on the robot, if it's a miter-cutting type.

Don't forget the toolboxes to hold stuff... or for some of the benchtop-sized tools, a cart might be useful. (Just make sure that that cart is sturdy enough.)

[roystur44]

Originally Posted by DanMystery

We want to make a plan for the following year or couple years (depending on how much we will need) to build up the machine shop. What machinery you guys think a machine shop should have?

Scotchman Cold Saw
Bridgeport Knee Mill with DRO
Rotary table for the knee mill
V blocks
100 gallon compressor
Pneumatic pop rivet gun
Makerbot 3D printer
Jett Lathe with DRO
Shop Vac
Drill press
Pneumatic rivnut gun
Notcher
4 foot metal shear
4 foot Electric press brake
press brake dies V and gooseneck
Tig Welder
Welding table
Grinders
Band Saw
Reamers
Arbor press
Hex broaching tools
Haas CNC Mini Mill with a indexer $$$
Gibbs Cam
SolidWorks
Fabricam
If you had the big bucks a Mazak 2000 watt laser cutter.

[Mulcahy]

We love our shopbot.

http://www.shopbottools.com/mProducts/shopbot_buddy.htm

The ability to go from cad to a real part in 10 minutes is a good thing. -And yes it will cut aluminum, if you are careful with you cutter selection and feed rates.

[Garrett.d.w]

Originally Posted by roystur44

Scotchman Cold Saw
Bridgeport Knee Mill with DRE
Rotary table for the knee mill
V blocks
100 gallon compressor
Pneumatic pop rivet gun
Makerbot 3D printer
Jett Lathe with DRE
Shop Vac
Drill press
Pneumatic rivnut gun
Notcher
4 foot metal shear
4 foot Electric press brake
press brake dies V and gooseneck
Tig Welder
Welding table
Grinders
Band Saw
Reamers
Arbor press
Hex broaching tools
Haas CNC Mini Mill with a indexer $$$
Gibbs Cam
SolidWorks
Fabricam
If you had the big bucks a Mazak 2000 watt laser cutter.

This! but my list is a little more basic (and in a slightly different order).

BIG drill presses (we like to have two) with their own vices, center drills, wigglers, etc.
Height gauge + surface plate (aka, sink cutout from your local countertops place) makes layout easy and accurate.
Harbor freight calipers (only buy the 6 inch digital ones, they are $10 on sale)
Horizontal/ vertical bandsaw. For us, we can do 90% of what we want to cut in the horizontal setting.
Dedicated Disk Sander (Stand Alone)
Dedicated Belt Sander (Stand Alone)

Then comes the "advanced stuff" This is what you get when you want to get fancy with your bot.

CAD capable computers (Autodesk supplies free student licences to their software) and a printer, this allows you to prototype faster and build smarter. Added bonus = you can print part drawings out and then you don't have to explain them quite as much
Mill (DRO optional) and appropriate tooling, this opens the world to precision machining.
Harbor freight hobby lathe, good for spacers, shaft couplings and bushings (not much else).
Dedicated metal vertical band saw.

And naturally, money and space (and insurance) allowing: we get to dream BIG
CNC Mill
CNC Router
Proper Engine Lathe
Maker bot
Small laser cutter (or a big sponsorship )

Anyway, Its your shop. Dream big and then work to make it happen. The "basic" category lets you build most things in FRC with a relatively new team. As you become more experienced, you will find that expanding the shop's capabilities to the "fancy" category will allow you to build anything. Getting even nicer into the "dream" category, well, that's when things get light and pretty (think robotnauts )

[catacon]

We currently have the following:

Metal bandsaw
Multiple bench grinders
Multiple table sanders
Two tabletop drill presses
Two floor standing drill presses
Three-axis manual mill
12" lathe
Miller MIG welder setup for aluminum (Argon, wire feed gun, etc.)
Lincoln MIG welder setup for steel (Argon/CO2 mix, etc.)

And we just recently gained access to:
3D printer
Laser cutter (mostly for acryllic)
Water jet
and soon a CNC

(These won't be in house, though, since our shop is fairly small.)

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by roystur44

Scotchman Cold Saw
Bridgeport Knee Mill with DRE
Rotary table for the knee mill
V blocks
100 gallon compressor
Pneumatic pop rivet gun
Makerbot 3D printer
Jett Lathe with DRE
Shop Vac
Drill press
Pneumatic rivnut gun
Notcher
4 foot metal shear
4 foot Electric press brake
press brake dies V and gooseneck
Tig Welder
Welding table
Grinders
Band Saw
Reamers
Arbor press
Hex broaching tools
Haas CNC Mini Mill with a indexer $$$
Gibbs Cam
SolidWorks
Fabricam
If you had the big bucks a Mazak 2000 watt laser cutter.

This sums up my wish list very nicely....

But it really depends on what kinda space/utilities you have (3 phrase 220v anyone?).
As well as what your team can afford and know how to use.

Also a big part of it is designing for what you mean. Teams that have only laser/water jet do a lot of a sheet metal, teams that have cnc do milled box/billet, teams that don't have any cnc design for manual milling only. (very generalized) So being able to design for what you have a is a big key, getting some copies of solid works or inventor and then training would probably be something to do first...