Recommended Tools and Machinery for Your Team's Machine Shop

[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...

[jmiller18]

Best tool to have ever is a sonic screwdriver.

The close second is organization, sadly for my team this isn't a joke.

The incredibly close third is safety glasses.

My team's shop is a converted wood shop, but just switched blades on the saws and bits for the drill(press)s. If you guys tend to do complex designs, then a mill would be great for you. If you decide to get a 3d printer for prototyping, go with printrbot, they are really cheap kits and the designer actually has video tutorials to assemble them.

[brynnanotbrenda]

Originally Posted by jmiller18

Best tool to have ever is a sonic screwdriver.

The close second is organization, sadly for my team this isn't a joke.

The incredibly close third is safety glasses.

My team's shop is a converted wood shop, but just switched blades on the saws and bits for the drill(press)s. If you guys tend to do complex designs, then a mill would be great for you. If you decide to get a 3d printer for prototyping, go with printrbot, they are really cheap kits and the designer actually has video tutorials to assemble them.

These would probably also be handy. Especially the organization. We just operate in the schools wood shop, which the high school shares witht the middle school. And we steal all our hand tools from the middle school cabinet, it's kind of pathetic.

[Pendulum^-1]

Our drill bits were always a mess, just thrown into a bin of whatever sort was available. I really didn't want to take the time to construct an organizer for drill bits.

Then we found this drill bit organizer:
http://www.fastenal.com/web/products/details/0346712

Right now, the drill bit organizers are on clearance, less than $50 including shipping. The really great feature is that it has a metal drill bit sizer on the top ledge. Students just stick the drill bits into the sizer, figure out the drill bit size, then put the drill bit into the right bin.

We got ours in mid-December 2014. It has worked out much better for my team than I ever expected. I highly recommend it, or at least making your own version of it.

[Garret]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

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...

Quoted for truth.

Mark is 100% right. Having tools is one thing but being prepared to design to utilize those tools effectively is something all on its own.

Before you shell out hundreds to thousands of dollars on in house machining equipment, I would make sure that your team is can design to utilize that equipment. It would be sort of pointless to get a Haas CNC but end up only using a few times a year for jobs that could just as easily have been done with a hand drill.

Additionally, at least on my team, finding manufacturing sponsors (CNC Laser and 5-Axis CNC Brake in our case) that can make parts for the team is often more useful than just getting low-end machine tools in house.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

and a small lathe (and someone who knows how to use it!).

And, more importantly, CARE for it. It won't last long or turn out good work unless it is carefully maintained.

Storage. One of those huge cabinets filled with bin boxes, with each bin labeled as to what goes in it. Like bearings, shafts, motors, brackets, pulleys, etc... Tell me your team doesn't ever say "I know we had one, but where is it?" only for it to be found a day after you order another one from McMaster.