Where do you build?

[Dusty]

Wow, where we work seems like Wonderland compared to some people. We were lucky because our main sponsor, is a metal fabricating shop (something like that) and because two of our mentors work there, we are able to user their machine shop. They have two Mills a horizontal and a vertical bandsaw, a drill press, and a CNC mill and lathe. Plus we have acess to our schools mech rooms which were newly renovated and have MIG welders, drill press, along with other things.

[chrisinmd]

We build in our school's wood/metal shop, which is adjacent to our mentor's classroom that he teaches Calc C in. He also teaches the Engineering design classes, so it makes it really easy for us to work. During build season, the shop is pretty much the robot zone. It used to be a full wood shop, but our mentor has been getting some more metalworking equipment, which is mostly used for robot because our school doesn't even have wood or metal shop classes anymore. We have 3 big drill presses, a table saw, large band saw, two small band saws, a small mill/lathe combo, a small CNC mill/lathe machine that doesn't work (even though we've been trying our hardest to fix it), metal brake, metal bender, MIG welder (loaned to the school each year), and grinders, drills, etc. We are very fortunate to have access to so much equipment, and I know other teams have more and others have less, we might be somewhere in the middle.

-Chris

[JVGazeley]

Our robot is built in our mentors garages. One of the garages can be seen on the FIRSTwiki, on the page about Eric (our 2005 robot), as the bottom pic is Eric in front of the garage with the door still open...

[Sakura141]

We use a empty storefront that the guy lets us use for free I think, because he likes how we are a learning program thing.

[GlitterRave113]

We work in the basement of the convent that is connected to our school. It's roomy, but sometimes it gets a bit crowded...It would be nice if we had a whole warehouse to build in like some teams, but for now I guess the basement will just have to do!

[qhsscience]

We have been extremely fortunate with regards to building space and resources. We work on one floor of a technical wing in a comprehensive high school. We have enough space to build a full scale field to work with and normally invite local teams to come practice the Saturday before shipping. We also work next to a metals fabrication shop and the teacher there is very accommodating to our program. We have mostly old machinery, but did purchase a new milling machine this year. We are also very close to our corporate sponsor, Gillette, who has their own world class machining facilities...so we can normally make things in one or the other place depending on the tolerance of the part needed. I think that it helps us work closer toward the best of both worlds - having students involved in the process and making/working on the machine AND having professionals who can show what can be accomplished when you have the right tools and the right skills.

[StandingInRain0]

We build in our school's metal shop...not the greatest, but it works. We then kind-of spread out into the autos room. Everything else that has nothing to do with building the actual robot is done in the Robotics room (aka the old choir room that was generously given to us when band and choir got new rooms)

[Daniel Morse]

Team 213 takes advantage of the attached career center at our school. For all design, programming, and animation needs, we use the CAD Lab, which is equipped with 20 computers with ATI FireGL v3200 workstation graphics. Needless to say, they run Inventor 10 and 3DS max wonderfully. When it comes to machining, we have a comprehensive machine shop consisting of 11 lathes, 6 mills, 3 full HAAS CNC machines, and various grinders. This is where all of the custom parts are made by student and pro machinists. To build our field, we go to the Construction trades lab, which is a gigantic construction room, with many handy woodworking tools. Unfortunately, we cannot leave the field set up in here, for they are usually building a house. We also have an auto shop that we do our sheet metal work in. The only thing we do export is welding, which we are not setup to do in the school.

[DeAnnaC]

We rely on one of our sponsors for space. We are in our 2nd location in this season. He rents/maintains/builds warehouse space and moves us to what he has available that isn't currently being rented out. The spot we are in now has a 50,000 sq foot warehouse and about 6 offices. We worked on the bot in a room about 30 x 20, the computers are in an adjoining office. We only have hand tools as we have to stay portable for the next possible move.

He did tell us that having the robot there was an easy way for potential renters to remember which building they were interested in.

DeAnna

[jDee_shaRpie]

We have a Nice Shop and Lab. Message me if you want to know whats in it.

[thatphotochick]

we work in a couple of rooms. one is the network system's room, which is our base, and it's full of computers. there's a room next door, a multimedia room, that we can use to build and research. we have the machine shop, which is a technology class in the day, with many machines and computers. we have a huge "closet" that houses all of our equipment except the machinery. we test the robot in either the library, "main street" or huge main hallway in our school, or the band room. we also have used little "meeting" areas and the computer lab. we take up alot of the school lol

[Jon Jack]

We have two places we build:

We do all of our machining and fabrication at Blue Chip Machining and Fabrication which is a 2 minute drive down the street from our school.

We do all of our building, electronics and programming in our engineering lab. When our robot is finished we roll it down the hall to our 'Commons' area, which is a large empty space which is intended for our school-wide community meetings and can seat 400-500 people. The carpet in this area is very similar to that of a FIRST field. We set up goals and ramps and run around.

[sheltie234]

Our team is fortunate enough to use our school's old shop room, so we also are fortunate enough to have several different machines. We also use a computer lab for Inventor, Animation, Website...

[Chris 481]

Team 481 has a trailer like the one that go on the back of 18 wheeler trucks
and we build in classrooms that we have to alternate because other classes need to use them. We only have hand tools except for a small drill press and we just ordered a bandsaw. The trailer barely holds all of our supplies because we have to store the equipment from the lego league comp that we host. It is pretty sad.

[Commanchetruck]

We build in a half classroom half computer lab. The only machinery we have is a mini drill press and a recipocating saw and of course drills. If we want to test the robot we can push it into the hallway. More than once this season someone has bumped the controls and sent 7 inch balls of poofy terror hurling into the brand new computers. Also in the hallway outside of the classroom the lockers and walls are scratched and have chunks missing. If we want a decent work space we must stack desks up at the back of the classroom. However we do have a smartboard and a makeshift stereo.