CNC Machines

[Brian Mocci]

Team 195 has full access to a metal shop with a 3Axis CNC. The funny thing is, the students of the robotics team are the only people who know how to operate it, as it's not currently used by the machine shop.
In Southington, there is a 16 student PLTW class, you apply in 8th grade and the school accepts the top 16 applicants to be members for the entire 4 year course. PLTW has helped alot, we just started using the CNC this year (Using it ALOT for that matter) and alot of the basic G-codes to get us started were taught junior year.

EDIT: The classes that our Project Lead the Way offers are as follows
Introduction to Engineering Design (Freshman) AP
Digital Electronics (Sophmore) AP
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (Junior) AP
Principals of Engineering (Junior) AP
Engineering Design and Development (Senior) Lvl4

[DB_UPS]

Team 1675 has access to five cnc 4axis mills, five cnc Lathes, One 3axis Auto-tool changer(holds ten tools) and a hand full of Lathes and bridgeports.

One of the two school that is part of the team(the one i going too), has the Project Lead the Way classes. I have taken all four class already and its really helps(i'm only a Junior). Both of your teacher that mentor our team from the school teach the PLTW classes. Most of the students on are team know how to program and run the cnc mill. But not many know how to G code.

We are always happy to make part for other team and Are welcome to have other use are stuff.

[jacob07]

We have a mill and a lathe in our robotics room. We do all our own machining. Its nice

[travis48elite]

Over at our school we have two regular manual mills, four lathes (one broken), and we also have an outdated CNC machine. We have had CNC classes for three years now where usually three students come in and learn the code. These classes usually last about two to three months where one of the engineers from our sponsor will come in and teach the students how to program the machine.

[Doug G]

Someone in our district found some Ed. Materials Budget money back in '03 and we bought a really small benchtop 4-axis CNC from Microkinetics which can make small gearboxes and such with a max on the y-axis at 3.75" and 8" on the X. Then this past fall we became an ROP Robotics class and they bought a CNC Jr. 3-axis mill that can go up to 8" on the Y and 15" on X. Our students learn how to design a part in Inventor, make a Drawing, and then handwrite the G-code from that. A while back I talked a distributor into giving us an evaluation copy of MasterCAM, but it was only good for 6 months. Oh the things that can be done with some good software.

[Tatsu]

I own a mini-desktop CNC which the team's using right now.. we used it to make pretty much everything from chassis to arm. total construction costs were around $1.5k..
All G-code is handwritten with macro-assist. I wish I knew how to use cam, but I can neither afford it nor use it well.

[LionMane250]

We Have PLTW at our school. Some of the classes are: Aerospace & Engineering, Computer Intergrated Manufacturing (CIM), CAD 1 & 2, Computer Graphics, & a whole lot more that I dont know the name of.

[Qbranch]

I make parts for 1024, but the machine shop I work at is not related to the team. ECU has 2 cnc mills, knee mill, engine lathe, a couple gantry mills, grinder, etc.

I don't go to the school where the team is... but at MCC where the team is based there are PLTW classes available, dont know exactly which ones.

-q

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Tatsu

All G-code is handwritten with macro-assist. I wish I knew how to use cam, but I can neither afford it nor use it well.

Take a look into FlashCut and Ace DXF converter. They are free, and easy to use.

[K.Porter]

172 has access to a 3 axis CNC router at the high school, as well as a number of CNC mills that we haven't been able to work with at one of our sponsor's shops.

We used the CNC router on the 2006 robot to put the team logo into a few pieces of lexan, but that's about it. I would make more use of it this year, but the only person that knew well how to use it retired, and I don't have the time to teach myself during the season. Hopefully next year though...