Questions About Tools

[electroken]

We don't use a bench grinder very often, but it's been useful a few times. Sometimes we need a bolt just a thread or two shorter. Then there was that time in week 6 of build season in 2015 when we needed 40 pieces of 80/20 nuts TODAY and had to make them from a bunch of square nuts we had laying around. The grinder earned its keep that day.

[snoman]

We have a good shop to use at our school but.
Cordless bandsaw
Good 18v cordless and impact drills
We have a stop saw and like it. It can cut wood and plastic. I do believe that they are expensive.
+1 versa frame you can do a lot without the need for high priced equipment. Make sure you are getting the KOP chassis

[MonroeM]

You should get a transfer punch set. These are great for marking out anything and everything on metal. The most important thing in our shop that I could not live without is clamps. It is so worth it to get a bunch of sizes and types (machining, Irwin, etc.). Clamps are great for prototyping things before you make them permanent especially if that is all the material you have. Our bot is usually assembled all with clamps first before we bolt and drill holes. You can just never have enough clamps. I would also get all the bolts, nuts, and screws that you think you will need for the season at one time (the store might donate these to you instead of buying). Nothing is worse than having to stop a project to get more bolts. And please get Nylock nut for heaven's sake. If you don't know what these are you are missing out.

[DaveL]

A grinder is great for trimming steel, but not so much for use on aluminum. The soft aluminum will attach to the wheel and clog it up.

Every time we cut aluminum it leaves a sharp edge. We use a basic belt/disk sander. (Found at Sears, HD and Lowes) to round (break) the edges. We also use a hand held deburring tool to clean up holes and interior edges.

For more control buy a variety of files: round, flat, fine, course, small and large.
Course files remove material quickly, fine files leave a smoother finish.
Round files are for smoothing holes and other interior shapes.
Large files are used for long parts and small files can get into tight spaces.

Like others have mentioned a band saw and a drill press are must haves.
You also need good lighting, a shop vac a floor vac and handheld drills. We like the battery powered handheld drills.

Yes a table saw is nice, but we are severely limited on space. Instead of a table saw we use a jig saw and a circular saw for cutting sheet material wider than our band saw.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by DaveL

A grinder is great for trimming steel, but not so much for use on aluminum. The soft aluminum will attach to the wheel and clog it up.

When you do a lot of aluminum, you have to use the dressing tool after every ten minutes or so. For both aluminum and steel, a bench grinder is much faster than a hand file and is both faster and offers more control than a dremel or angle grinder for the jobs it can handle. Just remember to use vise grips for small pieces for better control and so you don't burn your fingers!

To be fair, we do use our bench grinder more for steel than aluminum - finishing cut bolt ends, removing flashing, going past deburring to actually rounding a corner, and occasionally even sharpening a blade.

We bought a unit with two different grain size wheels; if we were buying today, we'd probably just get one stone wheel and the other would be a wire brush to use for clean-up jobs including paint or coating removal.

[frcguy]

Everyone else has said great advice. If you are interested, here is a list of all the tools we bought over the last season: https://goo.gl/qYTa66.

Also, I see your location is San Francisco. I'd be happy to talk with you and your team in person about shops and tooling, whether we come to you and check out your space or you come down to our shop and see our setup. Feel free to send a PM and I'm happy to arrange something.

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by DaveL

A grinder is great for trimming steel, but not so much for use on aluminum. The soft aluminum will attach to the wheel and clog it up.

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

When you do a lot of aluminum, you have to use the dressing tool after every ten minutes or so. For both aluminum and steel, a bench grinder is much faster than a hand file and is both faster and offers more control than a dremel or angle grinder for the jobs it can handle. Just remember to use vise grips for small pieces for better control and so you don't burn your fingers!

Replace one of the grinding wheels with an appropriately sized flap grinding wheel and you'll be good to go. They work very well on soft metals like aluminum or brass, and I even prefer them for many steels. But honestly, with the amount of aluminum teams use, I think everyone would benefit by replacing one of their grinding wheels with a flap wheel, and a decent one costs around $20.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

Replace one of the grinding wheels with an appropriately sized flap grinding wheel and you'll be good to go. They work very well on soft metals like aluminum or brass, and I even prefer them for many steels. But honestly, with the amount of aluminum teams use, I think everyone would benefit by replacing one of their grinding wheels with a flap wheel, and a decent one costs around $20.

Cannot stress what Devin said enough. Grinding aluminum on the standard wheel a bench grinder comes with is a serious safety hazard. It can and will explode if you repeatedly do so.

Everyone saying "you should look into something else" is right, but it is far more urgent than switching to a more efficient method of removing metal. Just don't do it with the standard wheel!

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by Cory

Cannot stress what Devin said enough. Grinding aluminum on the standard wheel a bench grinder comes with is a serious safety hazard. It can and will explode if you repeatedly do so.

Everyone saying "you should look into something else" is right, but it is far more urgent than switching to a more efficient method of removing metal. Just don't do it with the standard wheel!

When I was first shown the basics of using the grinder, I was actually told that grinding aluminum merely shortened the life of the wheel. I didn't learn that it was a serious safety hazard until I was working in a different shop and ground down an aluminum weld on a wheel meant for tungsten.

In your opinion, what's the best replacement? I've never used the type of mesh wheel that Devin Castellucci linked to, but I've always met good results with flap wheels. Anyone have any good recommendations?

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

When I was first shown the basics of using the grinder, I was actually told that grinding aluminum merely shortened the life of the wheel. I didn't learn that it was a serious safety hazard until I was working in a different shop and ground down an aluminum weld on a wheel meant for tungsten.

In your opinion, what's the best replacement? I've never used the type of mesh wheel that Devin Castellucci linked to, but I've always met good results with flap wheels. Anyone have any good recommendations?

Depends what your desired outcome is. If it's removing metal in a hurry, I would get a disc sander and call it a day. If it's light metal removal a flap wheel is good. If it's deburring, this is a good choice, or this or this (we use these last two the most as they are dirt cheap, work well, and conform to irregular surfaces a bit better than the EXL wheel. The EXL wheel is really long lasting and super nice for deburring edges on parts that don't have areas that need conformity.

[bobbysq]

Something I forgot to recommend is a good shear if you plan on working with sheet metal. I'm sure some teams would prefer some sort of saw for doing this, but for us, the shear has been invaluable for cutting down sheet metal all the way from a large plate to small gussets.

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by DaveL

A grinder is great for trimming steel, but not so much for use on aluminum. The soft aluminum will attach to the wheel and clog it up.

Please, get a deburring wheel, also called a sanding wheel. It's basically a non-ferrous grinding wheel. You will thank me later.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#4763a13/=154q2b8

Should last a couple of seasons of reasonably heavy use.

Also as a side note, aluminum on a stone grinding wheel expands at a different rate when heated by friction and will eventually risk compromising the integrity of your wheel if not frequently dressed. Nobody wants 3000 rpm of stone to explode in their face.