Home Depot In-store donation

[Joseph Smith]

How about a belt sander? From my experience, a belt sander is better than a grinder for cleaning up and grinding aluminum anyway, but it can also handle steel, wood, or whatever you want to throw at it.
How about a welder? Plasma cutter? Mini bandsaw? Tool chest?
I'd have a field day with an opportunity like that!

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Does it have to be one item or is it off the whole receipt?

[SJaladi]

Here is a quick list of things I can think of off the top of my head:

Rolling tool chest (great for the pit and the shop)

Heavy duty air compressor (great for air tools and for a quick way to test pneumatics in a prototype capacity)

Air Riveter (much better than a manual one)

Nice set of assorted hand tools (never hurts to stock up on hand tools)

Bench top drill press (great for light duty jobs and the pit)

Belt/disc combo sander (much better than a grinder for handling a variety of materials)

Drill bits and saw blades (great way to stock up on spares)

If all else fails just wander the aisles of Home Depot until you find enough cool stuff to qualify for the discount

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

Does it have to be one item or is it off the whole receipt?

Multiple items is fine.

[hionwind]

1678 has been buying the Ryobi cordless drills from Home Depot and we love them. Make sure you get the new Lithium-Ion version which is lime green (perhaps that's why we love them!)

[jvriezen]

Also looking to get something that will be long lasting (not consumable -- hand tools (wrenches etc.) seem to be consumable around robotics teams...)

[philso]

Originally Posted by Joseph Smith

How about a belt sander? From my experience, a belt sander is better than a grinder for cleaning up and grinding aluminum anyway, but it can also handle steel, wood, or whatever you want to throw at it.
How about a welder? Plasma cutter? Mini bandsaw? Tool chest?
I'd have a field day with an opportunity like that!

A belt sander is also easier to use SAFELY than a grinder.

One alternative is to get a bunch of good quality drill bits (multiples of the commonly used sizes) and a few Deburring Tools.

A second alternative is to get a small Band Saw. It's not the greatest but it will be easier to get good cuts on tubing and sheet goods than with a hacksaw.

A third alternative would be to get some clamps. On the weekend, I saw some good quality Bessey brand clamps on sale in one of our local stores.

[hionwind]

This looks like a great deal:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-One...6?N=5yc1vZc7jj

[Bob Steele]

You might also think about a Dremel and the metal cutting disks. This comes in quite handy too and they definitely have them at Home Depot.

[rich2202]

Wood/plywood to build a shipping crate for your robot to the Championship!

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by philso

A belt sander is also easier to use SAFELY than a grinder.

One alternative is to get a bunch of good quality drill bits (multiples of the commonly used sizes) and a few Deburring Tools.

A second alternative is to get a small Band Saw. It's not the greatest but it will be easier to get good cuts on tubing and sheet goods than with a hacksaw.

A third alternative would be to get some clamps. On the weekend, I saw some good quality Bessey brand clamps on sale in one of our local stores.

Thanks for the tip on the deburring tool. My previous team had one, and we've been missing one on my new team. Tried a couple other places that didn't have that type. Didn't realize HD carried those.

[philso]

Originally Posted by hionwind

This looks like a great deal:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-One...6?N=5yc1vZc7jj

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+1
This is the first Ryobi product I would consider purchasing for myself. It is reasonably well made and has sufficient power for everything our team needs it to do. Our team has two of these drills, 6 batteries (4 compact + 2 high capacity) and a 6-Port-SuperCharger. With 10-20 people working, we never run out of batteries except when we were cutting "speed holes" in our chassis with a couple of hole saws. The batteries charge very quickly (under half an hour, I think).

Originally Posted by jvriezen

Thanks for the tip on the deburring tool. My previous team had one, and we've been missing one on my new team. Tried a couple other places that didn't have that type. Didn't realize HD carried those.

I found them in the tool section of the plumbing department. I got a good workout the weekend before Bag & Tag using one of these to clean up all our "speed holes". Unscrew the cap on the end of the handle and remove the spare blade. Put the spare blade somewhere safe, say in your tool box. We found that the end cap tends to unscrew on it's own, allowing the spare blade to fall out and get lost.

[jvriezen]

Decision made, thanks all:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-Ben...601G/205509608

Plus some miscellaneous things like deburring tool(s) and maybe various sanding belts/discs to go with it.

Also thanks for the tip on the saving the deburring spare blade.. Not sure putting it in a safe place will make it findable either with how things go in our 'shop'