Classroom Tools

[cmrnpizzo14]

I have looked through some threads and I haven't seen one recently (within the past year or two) that has what I am looking for. We are essentially a classroom team. We work in a hallway at school or in our head mentor's classroom which is quite undersized as he has an attached lab so his room is much smaller. Other local teams have come to events at our school and asked "Can we use your shop" while in our schools hallway and we have to regretfully tell them that they are standing in it.

That being said, we are actually possibly (Don't count your chickens before they're hatched) acquiring slightly more space this upcoming year! As a result, we can possibly obtain more permanent and effective tools than a drill press and a chop saw.

My question for you is:

What are your teams essential tools that you have in your work spaces that would be compatible with a classroom working environment? If you have specific recommendations on a brand, model or supplier please include those.

Thank you!

EDIT: We are possibly (same stipulations as earlier) acquiring a 3D Printer for next season.

[Boe]

probably the most used non-hand tool used in our shop would be our manual mill or manual lathe. If you have the space/money a combo manual mill/lathe would be a good investment in my opinion.

[Joe G.]

Get a lathe at all costs. You won't know what you ever did without it.

I would not recommend a mill/lathe combo. These tools tend to do both jobs very poorly. It's better to invest in one good tool that will last a long time, and wait until you can afford the second.

[mman1506]

In our mobile machine shop for comp are most used tools are the mini mill, mini lathe and a full size band saw.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Our most used tools are our bandsaws and small belt sanders.

There is a tool guide in the appendix of our Team building guide, Spectrum Illuminations.

[cmrnpizzo14]

Thank you everyone, if it isn't too much trouble could you post your most frequent applications for these tools? In particular, things that you really could not do without them.

[mman1506]

Lathe, making precise spacers and turning shafts down for different applications.

bandsaw, cutting anything and everything. Often used to cut sown raw material to put in another machine. Make sure to get a good one with a welder.

mill, drilling precise holes, slots and squaring off material

[Jon Stratis]

I think a band saw is key and should be the first purchase. Sure, you can cut whatever it is using hand tools... but it'll be 1000 times faster with a band saw!

After that, I would go for a Mill. We got both a mill and a lathe this year, and the mill was used much, much more. It's awesome for cutting slots in motor mounts, allowing easy chain tension adjustment, as well as making a variety of items.

A Lathe can be a great tool to have as well. We used ours this year to make several shaft couplers, which resulted in easy mounting for our potentiometers.

If you have the room, getting a break could be really useful - the ability to precisely bend aluminum (and plexiglass) as we need is something we've used on every robot for years. It's great for making brackets, boxes, and pans that drop down below the frame for the bottom of the robot.

[DonRotolo]

A nice band saw is a few hundred dollars, while a nice mill is a few thousand.

First item should be a shop vacuum. Keeps the place clean.

A band saw cuts most everything, if you use the right blade. If money is an issue, avoid high-end machines with blade welders.

A belt sander - even with a 1" wide belt - is used to finish metal and plastic parts. You cut close to the line and use the sander to make it perfect.

A good vise, on a sturdy table, is essential. It holds everything tightly so you can do things to them, like drilling or tapping or sawing.

You have a drill press and chop saw.

That's about it for what we use often. We do have a lathe and find it useful for what was mentioned above, plus making shaft collars, shaft couplings, and drilling holes dead center of shaft ends. We also use our table saw on occasion.

[TheMadCADer]

I once used a drill press and some sandpaper because we didn't have a lathe. It worked, but it took all day for each part, although it did turn out fantastic. A lathe can be a very worthwhile investment if you use it a lot.

Still, I'd always prioritize a mill over a lathe. Flat parts are just so much more common for our purposes.

But first and foremost, make sure you have some good cordless drills, jigsaws, and C-clamps. You can make a good robot with those three things alone. Add a nice vice (which you can turn into a brake with a few pieces of angle iron and some hinges if you're a little creative), some hacksaws, plus a tap and die set and you're looking good.

I will also reiterate the need for a good vacuum or two. This can make a huge difference in how long it takes to clean up and how it looks when you're done.

[MichaelBick]

We are in exactly the same position as you(maybe a bit more space). The sponsors you have also are important in this decision. This year we obtained a rather large lathe(close to full size) and a small mill. We haven't used our mill that much(it's less useful and less powerful so we send many parts off to a machine shop).

I would high recommend against the 3D priter. IMO it is a waste of money that can be used on machines that may be less versatile but can machine larger parts. There really is no reason that you NEED a 3D printer. If space is limited, you also want to make full use of the space you do have. Our most important tools are our drill press, chop saw, arbor press(3 ton will seem large, but it is basically the smallest you can go without going too small), vices, lathe, and disk sander. Once you have those you can start adding on machines. Bandsaws are nice(especially horizontals for cutting down stock) and you can add a mill later.

If you have a machine shop sponsor or waterjet sponsor your needs will vary. We usually send our tubing and complicated CNC parts to our machine shop. However, this is generally unnecessary. If we wanted to, we could do 95% of our tube in house on our drill press and chop saw, albeit with a bit less accuracy. The hardest part would be doing our bolt pattern(which you could make a dig for if you really needed to). If we needed to we could probably use less or no CNC parts in our design. If you can get a waterjet or laser sponsor(really quite easy to find one willing to sponsor you) it would help a lot. 2D machining is a lot faster than milled or lathed parts. We use a ton of wterjet parts in our design because of how versatile the parts are. One way of building is using custom waterjetted gussets and match drilling your tube. For a low resource team this is very accomplishable and from what I hear quite similar to how 2056 initially build there robots. The most important thing to remember is that you should design around your machining resources, not the other way around.

Tools and how we use them:
Lathe: essential tool. it is the best way of making round parts. with it you can machine shafts, spacers, standoffs, rollers, and hubs that are not possible to do well on any other machine
Chop saw: essential machine to cut down stock
Drill Press: We use to modify waterjetted parts. Can also be used for tube. ESSENTIAL TOOL
Arbor Press: Essential tool to press thing sin and out. We use it to get press fits on our bearings, hubs, rollers, etc. We also use it to broach parts in house Really,really, really useful machine that can get you out of a lot of tricky situations
Vices: Hold stuff. Pretty self explanatory
Disk sander: round edges. can be used to grind lathe tools(cheaper than insert bits, we like inserts)
Mill: used to ream waterjetted plates, and machines some of our misc easy to machine tube. Used for accurate cutoff and holes(i.e bolt pattern). We rarely mill stuff(though occasionally when we are in a bind we do. hoping to use this machine more next year). IT isn't needed but we're glad we have it.
We don't have the rest of these tools, but if we had them this is what we would use them for
Vertical Bandsaw: cutting stock, cutting more complex shapes, it is a bit more versatile than a chopsaw but also permanently takes up space.
Horizontal Bandsaw:Used to cut stock. There are some nice models that you clamp the stock in and leave the machine. The machine automatically turns off when it is done cutting

The last thing to remember is that for large machines like mills and lathes you want to budget as much money for the tools as the machine itself. This includes workholding, cutting tools, etc.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

I would high recommend against the 3D priter. IMO it is a waste of money that can be used on machines that may be less versatile but can machine larger parts. There really is no reason that you NEED a 3D printer. If space is limited, you also want to make full use of the space you do have.

3D printers can make rather large parts, if needed. I know of one that could do a 16"x16"x12" part if one was called for that big. I also know of some folks, myself included, who would advise finding a way to make the part out of 3-4 smaller ones in that case.

The thing to remember about 3D printers is that they can be either cheap or expensive, depending on type and model and size and material ($2K for a "hobbyist" is pretty normal, but larger sizes of other types can run into six figures). The other thing is that for most FRC teams, the main use will probably end up being small shields and protectors and spacers--which could be turned out on a lathe or mill.

That said, IF the 3D printer does happen, I would highly suggest building a RepRap-type 3D printer immediately--if you don't know how to use the machine after that, you really need help.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by EricH

3D printers can make rather large parts, if needed. I know of one that could do a 16"x16"x12" part if one was called for that big. I also know of some folks, myself included, who would advise finding a way to make the part out of 3-4 smaller ones in that case.

The thing to remember about 3D printers is that they can be either cheap or expensive, depending on type and model and size and material ($2K for a "hobbyist" is pretty normal, but larger sizes of other types can run into six figures). The other thing is that for most FRC teams, the main use will probably end up being small shields and protectors and spacers--which could be turned out on a lathe or mill.

That said, IF the 3D printer does happen, I would highly suggest building a RepRap-type 3D printer immediately--if you don't know how to use the machine after that, you really need help.

Are team has a 3D printer but we don't get a whole lot of use out of it. It takes a long time to print. Though are printer isn't very good (BFB). Personally I have found are retrofitted Novamill CNC mill a bit more useful which was about $1.5K. It is mainly used to make sprockets and gusset plates. We also have a larger DIY gantry CNC mill out of 8020 that was about $2.5K to make (less than a makerbot replicator)