Drill presses and bandsaws back in the pits

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by squirrel

If you get bumped while using a bandsaw, your fingers can get cut off. If you get bumped while using a jigsaw, you might break the jigsaw blade. Jigsaw blades are expendable...fingers are not.

Quite true.

Originally Posted by squirrel

I would be VERY impressed with a student who could make a drawing and present it to a machinist, and have the finished part be made such that it could be attatched to the robot with no additional work. That's what engineering is all about.

I've done that several times this season, including this interesting CNC sheet metal shoulder bracket for our robot's arm which bolts right onto an IFI 72t sprocket.

http://www.team228.org/media/pictures/view/2913
http://www.team228.org/media/pictures/view/2911

But when you're in the elimination rounds and a critical part on your robot fails, you don't always have the time to create drawings and have the on-site machine shop fabricate a new one. In that case, I'd rather teach a younger student to be make up a creative, MacGyver-like solution out of a few bent up pieces of Lexan, some Gorilla glue, a hose-clamp, and an empty Mountain Dew can. (Or any other random stuff in the pits.)

I've been inspired for real engineering during the build season and on the playing field, but the inspiration I found in the pits is often for creative thinking and intuition.