Gracious Professionalism at your local hardware store

[Anchi]

it would be prety funny if corprate knowtesed and uped the number all stores have in stock then all the sudden noone needs them. heh

[Roland]

Could be worse, remember the fiasco with the balls last year.

[elknise]

We found our in the plumbing section. We are going to look at an electrical supply house to see if we can find the flat end caps similar to what is going to be used at the competition.

If your local home depot doesn't have them, try an electrical or plumbing supply place. They are sure to have a lot more in stock than a hardware store.

[MisterX]

There is really only 1 other team in eastern connecticut and they are 30 minutes west of us ( our sister team) and it took us going to I think 6 different hardware stores before we could get enough end caps to put just 1 smaller tetra together so we have had to order some which we hope to have by tuesday.

[dhitchco]

As discussed elsewhere in this forum, if you're still struggling to find PVC endcaps for the practice field tetras or goals, here's a couple of hints.....especially for the goal units.

1) Use plastic tie-wraps to hold together the corners of the goals. Just drill holes through both ends of all six (6) goal pieces and "thread" the tie-wrap through three poles at each corner. leave the tie wraps loose until the goal is assembled, then "cinch" them up.

2) If you have the PVC end caps but not enough "clovers" to hold the corners together, go look for "pipe strap" in the plumbing section. It is soft metal, comes in a roll and is perforated every 1/2" or so. Just cut into short segments and bolt through three pieces of the pipe strap, connecting each corner of the goal. Bend down the sharp ends too.

[CJO]

If (like us) you are in a rural area, try irrigation supply places, home depot was nearly out, the local irrigation place had like 300 in stock.

[james]

Dudes you dont go to a hardware store for plumbing supplies DUH..

[sciguy125]

We went to home depot for supplies to build vision targets yesterday. We ended up getting the last can of flourecent green paint. I suspect that other teams paid them a visit before us - who else would use it? And to any teams planning to visit the Cupertino, CA Home Depot some time soon...sorry.

[[527]phil]

we'll at home depot it went like this:

Steve: "do you have any 1 and 1/4 inch PVC end caps"

salesman: "your from robotics aren't you?"

Steve: "uhhh, yeah"

salesman: "nope no more end caps, the last team cleared me out"

i don't know how our mentor got some but the next day we had 2 boxes of them lying on the workbench