Funniest/Wierdest thing you have done while building your robot

[Dorienne]

This didn't happen this year (actually back in '03 ) but it was pretty funny..one of my very interesting mistakes.

I was sitting around with nothing to do. I had already asked if anyone needed anything, and they said no. So, I sat down to do homework and whatnot. I got yelled at, and told to do something. Joe, one of the seniors, got me to work on building the field. He told me to drill some screws in the wood, so I tried. I turned it on, and tried to drill it, but it made this loud noise, and I screamed and almost let go of the drill. Just so happened that it was in reverse. >_<; Joe fixed it and everytime I drilled the screw in the wood I would squirm and squeal a bit. I was freaked out by that thing. It didn't like me.

Good ol' days, being a little freshman.

[TheShadow]

This year my friend Tom (username 30goto20) was really tired durring a build session. There is a desk in our crib that meets the wall, and the wall is built in such a way so that there is a 2-foot gap between the back of the desk and the wall. Tom crawled behind the desk and napped there for about half an hour before some huge bang woke him up. I believe someone dropped a piece of extrusion on the floor. Also, we may or may not have video of him sleeping there.

[karinka13]

This year I think the worst thing I did was set off the alarm at school trying to get a box out of Mr. Foell's room...and then I got yelled at by the janitors, who usually rule. Thankfully they fixed the alarm system before the police came. That wouldn't have been pretty.

And then there's always my freshman year, when the seniors told me to find them a left-handed screwdriver....

[Jacqui]

Time for another lovely Freshie year story!
*Pulls out a book of all my Weird/funny things*

I think that they funniest time was when I was in the new group of building the EduBot. (Detail: Every year my team has the new people, no matter what they are doing on the team, help build this little robot called the EduBot) Well, after we got that built, we all got turns driving it, and that is when I basically tried to run everyone over with it, knocked over all the soda cans, and got deemed a crazy, but good driver. I know that this seems kinda stupid, but I got to drive that little sucker out in the hallway and up the ramp...

[santosh]

We wre building a display box that rotated and had a door in it to place a touch screen monitor and a computer in it. 1 of the guys told me to use the rotozip to sand down th wood so that the door would open easier. He never knew that i Hadn't ever used a rotozip before. These things turn a lot faster than dremels.
And I was using it and it slipped and I melted our hinge pieces together and it couldn't be opned or closed.

Then during one build session, in another robotics competition we compete in (B.E.S.T. Robotics), someone spilt some primer on our robot and it got the name Optimus primer, so they made me and 2 other kids ( all 3 of us freshmen) coat avery piece of PVC with primer completely and we had to turn a fan on to blow the smell away. Naturally bing stupid freshmen last year, we stood infront of the robot and fan cousing all the primer to go to us basically getting us high.

[DarkJedi613]

Well...there was that one time the engineers had razor scooter races in the main hallway of our commons at 4:00 AM... (that was last year though...)

this year a security guard yelled at us for riding around on skateboards upstairs...turns out it was our teacher who was riding his skateboard to his room to get something

that's all I can think of right now...

[santosh]

Originally Posted by Dorienne Plait

He told me to drill some screws in the wood, so I tried. I turned it on, and tried to drill it, but it made this loud noise, and I screamed and almost let go of the drill. Just so happened that it was in reverse. >_<; Joe fixed it and everytime I drilled the screw in the wood I would squirm and squeal a bit. I was freaked out by that thing. It didn't like me.

Good ol' days, being a little freshman.

My days of being a freshman includ my mentor telling me to drill a screw flush, so i did. but it got out of hand and I had the screw sitting 1.5" flush into the wood. Now anytime something is too far in flush, they say that a SAntosh was pulled.

This year (sophmore year) I have set the record this year on my team for breaking 5 titanium drill bits. None of this on purpose. So I have vowed to never use titanium drill bits ever. My club does a lot of wierd stuff.

[Andrew Y.]

haha, to many stories for this topic

Santosh
---broke a huge titanium drill bit on PVC.
---broke about 3 more after that
--- was asked to cut a ½ wide and 2 inch long slot, ended up making a 2x2 box

one of our team members broke a HUGE, I MEAN UGE milling bit



One night we slept over at school pulling a all nighter, it happened to be the coldest night of the year (about 20 F). Being us we forgot the school had heating and we all gathered around a spot light to sleep near

[Jacqui]

Speaking of breaking drill bits...I broke one on wood last year...I have it in my room =)

This year, my team moved to a MEDAL workshop (Our team had worked in a wood shop), so there were alot of new "toys" to play with. Well, the first time we worked in there, I got to use this one BIG machine first, and James (a guy on my team) didn't tighten the clamp on it enough, so the long piece of aluminum about 1 foot out of the 10 feet of it jolted out at me. It came close to me, and I almost peed my pants. After the shock wore off, we were all laughing soo hard. I heard that the look on my face when it happened was priceless.

[santosh]

Ofcourse cutting your thumb off is much btter than breaking drill bits right? lol

The big 1 inch mill bit was broken when somone ran a program on the mill without turning on the part that makes the bit spin.

I don't really remember the 2X2 box though. What was that one?

[Andrew Y.]

Originally Posted by Jacqui

This year, my team moved to a MEDAL workshop (Our team had worked in a wood shop), so there were alot of new "toys" to play with. Well, the first time we worked in there, I got to use this one BIG machine first, and James (a guy on my team) didn't tighten the clamp on it enough, so the long piece of aluminum about 1 foot out of the 10 feet of it jolted out at me. It came close to me, and I almost peed my pants. After the shock wore off, we were all laughing soo hard. I heard that the look on my face when it happened was priceless.

haha, something always get thrown out from BIG machines

[Jacqui]

Originally Posted by Andrew Y.

haha, something always get thrown out from BIG machines

That might be why they let me at the machine first...being as I was the only girl on the build team that night..nebbe they are plotting to kill me! AHHH!

[Andrew Y.]

Originally Posted by Jacqui

That might be why they let me at the machine first...being as I was the only girl on the build team that night..nebbe they are plotting to kill me! AHHH!

naw.....Gracious professionalism protects u

[Jacqui]

Originally Posted by Andrew Y.

naw.....Gracious professionalism protects u

Hmm...I forgot about that...::jumps in joy:: Thank goodness for Gracious Professionalism!

[StephLee]

Our team's favorite stories(I'd nearly bet my life they're unanimous) both involve high speeds and a wall.

Story # 1: We had just gotten the robot to the point where we thought it would drive, so we took it out in the hallway to try it out. (To this day, no one has an answer to my question of WHY we went out into the hallway when our room is about 35 feet wide and the hallway is about 5. Espescially since it's not our school[we're two schools], it's at the local college.) Anyway, everyone had a turn driving it. James took his turn, and he didn't realize how sensitive the KoP joysticks were. He went too fast, realized he was going to hit the corner that jutted out, and for some reason let go of the joysticks. They bounced back and forth, the robot kept moving pretty fast, and when it hit the wall, took a chunk out of the corner. The building was brand-new. Even though James and his dad patched it(the people who run the building still don't know where the hole is), it's still visible.

Story # 2: It was our first test of our autonomous mode, and we were at the local ski lodge(after hours; it was the only place with a large enough carpeted area to practice.) We set up people around the robot since we weren't entirely sure what would happen(again, I'm not sure why we didn't put it up on blocks or something) and turned it on. Apparently, the speed was set at full...it zoomed across the room, nearly decapitated our driver and a mentor before it crashed into a wall. If it had turned another few feet to the left, it would have hit an all-glass wall...a few more feet, and it would have hit the younger sibs of several team members and/or my parents and grandparents...

Apparently our robot has anger issues with walls.