pic: machines

[Yan Wang]

We work in a tech room and wood shop. Meaning we have a mill, 2 lathes, a currently not working CNC, a band saw, other smaller metal-working machines/tools, and plenty of woodworking tools and machines). Luckily, our sponsor will machine some of the things we can't, such as wire-edm gears.

[Jay H 237]

Our team is based at the local high school and we get to use the machines in the woodshop and metalshop. The woodshop is complete with everything and the metalshop is going through a slow metamorphisis with a new teacher in there the past two years. The previous teacher had let alot of the stuff go to waste. The old machinery is getting replaced by more modern machinery. We currently have three running Bridgeport millers all donated (I got one donated by the company I work for), 5 lathes that have seen better days (although still running and usable for now) and hopefully will get replaced soon depending on donations and school budget. Verticle and horizontal bandsaws, acetalene, MIG, and arc welders. There are also numerous other stuff including benders, breaks, grinders, compressor, ect. The only machine currently not running and usable is a small 30+ year old surface grinder, another machine that it's moment in the sun has long passed. Some of our sponsors also help with some of our work especially this year with school cancellations.

[briholton]

what i would give for a mill, a lathe, a big drill press. we have a donated (by me) 100 dollar drill press and some hand tools. Oh, but we do have a 9.6 V dewalt drill! It's a bit difficult to build without good tooling.....

[sanddrag]

For big tools we only have a big RIGID floor drill press and a big Dewalt Compount Mitre saw and a smaller Dewalt Compound mitre saw, a bench grinder, and a combo belt/disk sander.

But, we have access to a machine shop with:
-6 bridgeport mills and 6 lathes, a few equipped with digital readout
-A HAAS VF-4 710 ipm 20 HP CNC mill with 4th axis (you can make full size car wheels in this thing)
-One HAAS VF-2 CNC mill with 4th axis (soon getting another VF-2)
-A HAAS CNC Lathe
-A large verticle band saw
-A large horizontal bandsaw
-A large press
-Many large grinders including a precision surface grinder

Also, we have access to a full welding shop that does both aluminum and steel and professional welder guy.

Last, we have someone with full sheetmetal fabrication facilites available to make us stuff.

So, we are pretty set with our tools. I wish we had our own mill and lathe but they are expensive and cost a lot and the college where the machine shop is, is only 8 minutes (driving) away from us.

[sanddrag]

We just got some pics up on our site from last year at the machine shop.

If the picture was larger you'd see the two CNC mills off to the left. Also, the shop was TWICE this size in 2002 before it got downsized and half of it got turned into a computer lab.

[Marygrace]

We have a mill/lathe. LOL, im to impatient to use it. It takes to long, my favorite machines are the grinder and horizontal band saw. They are the easiest.