How important is a machine shop?

[archiver]

Posted by nick237 at 05/16/2001 3:09 PM EST


Engineer on team #237, sie h2o bots, from Watertown high school ct and sieman co.


In Reply to: How important is a machine shop?
Posted by bill whitley on 05/15/2001 4:34 PM EST:



Bill. The need for a tool shop and access to machine equipment is paramount in the building proccess of a robot. Part of F.I.R.S.T. is learning all aspects of the robotics competition, Having some one else build your robot is not a learning experience.
Not all schools in the F.I.R.S.T. program are able to have the equipment needed to build but there is some thing you can do. We the Sie H20 Bots, Team 237 were in the same situation as you are.
We had no support from the metal shop teacher, in fact he went out of his way to harm the team.
So what do you do........
Well what we did was knock on doors. we went to every factory and company in the area, we introduced our selves and gave them some info on F.I.R.S.T. We gave them a video of some of our games and then explained we were in need of upgraded equipmen.
We asked them if they had any equipment that they were not using or were up grading. as we are a school we would be a Tax deduction for a higher amount than theywould get if they sold the equipment.
Soon we had 3 Lathes, 3 Brigeports, 3 Band saws, a multitude of hand tools and then a Tig Mig welder. It was a struggle and a lot of hard work but all these things were given freely to the team.
As we were still having trouble with the school and the metal teacher so we went off and looked around some of the factories and found an empty space, we asked the owner if he could donate an area to us for building, now we have not only a full machine shop with all the tools and equipment but a room for driving and testing, a design and electronics room and a kitchen area with a lounge. All this is free including the electricity.
The only thing we get from the school is an insurance policy to cover liability. Oh and a Phone.
It took a year to do this and now were settled in we find out the metal teacher is retiring "Whoo Hoo", GOOD RIDENCE.
Bill it can be done, Just go out and ask....
Nick237


: How important do you think a machine shop is? What tools do you think are necessary to build a competitive robot? Can you do it w/o a lathe? a mill? welding facilities? wireEDM? Where do you draw the line between a necessity and a need? Can a compedative robot be built only from hand tools?

: My personal opinion is that you need at least a mill to build a compedtitive robot. However, we've never had much access to a lathe or welding. And no access to wireEDM or CNC or any fun stuff like that. Maybe I dont know what I'm missing.

: Bill Whitley