[FRC Blog] Weather and Safety, An Opening, and Award Deadlines

[Hallry]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 2/12/14: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...Opening-Awards

Weather and Safety, An Opening, and Award Deadlines

Blog Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - 13:37

Weather and Safety

Wow, what a build season it’s been for storms in the United States. The Southeast is getting pummeled again today, and the online Snow Day Calculator (I don’t know how accurate it is, but it can be fun regardless) is saying Manchester, NH schools – and I’m sure many others in the Northeast - may be in for an early release tomorrow, or even closed.

Whether or not your team is being affected directly by these storms, you’re almost certainly feeling the pressure of the looming Stop Build Day on Tuesday, February 18th. You may even be tempted to cut a few corners when it comes to safety. Please don’t. Keep wearing those safety glasses. Be careful when using tools. And if the roads are slippery, stay home. Rare is the team that thinks their robot is perfectly ready for competition even in the best of circumstances. You will find plenty of help, if you need it, at your event, to finish up. We’d rather see robots showing up to events missing actuators than team members showing up missing fingers. Seriously, your health and safety should come first, always.

An Opening



(The FIRST Cube prowls the Alpha Quadrant hunting job candidates worthy of assimilation. Resistance would be ungracious.)

FRC has a new opening for a Junior Software Engineer. You can find the posting here. This is a starting position, so applicants graduating soon, just out of college, or with just a few years of experience are welcome. Best of all, you get to work for the legendary Matt Pilotte, FRC Electrical Engineering Manager and FMS capo di tutti capi. Come join our team!

Award Deadlines

Tomorrow, February 13, is the deadline for Chairman’s Award and Entrepreneurship Award submissions. We take those submission deadlines seriously*, so please get your submissions in on time. Details can be found in the FRC Administrative Manual.

Frank

*Almost to the point of being jerks about the whole thing :-)

Anyone else notice the URL for the photo? -http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default/files/uploadedFiles/Robotics_Programs/FRC/Game_and_Season__Info/2014/not-a-2015-game-hint.jpg

[MooreteP]

I love it.

"Resistance would be ungracious"

Gonna try to put it on our team shirts.

BTW, losing YET ANOTHER DAY to the weather!

God Bless the Withholding allowance.

[JeremyLansing]

+1 to Frank for the Star Trek reference, I'm not sure I've ever laughed so hard from an FRC blog.

[Zuelu562]

Officially nominating Frank for a nerd comedy award. That was gold.

[DonRotolo]

Ah, safety.

Just last week, a student was cutting a piece of 80/20 on a chop saw, holding it by hand. It got away from him, flew across the shop and whacked (hard!) a young lady. Right in the glasses.

The glasses did not shatter, but did get a nice scratch. The top edge of the glasses also hit the young lady in the forehead, leaving a small red 'dent'.

She was nowhere near the chop saw.

Had she not been wearing her glasses, she'd most certainly have lost an eye. Her glasses did exactly what they were supposed to, because she was wearing them.

True story.
Think about that.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Ah, safety.

Just last week, a student was cutting a piece of 80/20 on a chop saw, holding it by hand. It got away from him, flew across the shop and whacked (hard!) a young lady. Right in the glasses.

The glasses did not shatter, but did get a nice scratch. The top edge of the glasses also hit the young lady in the forehead, leaving a small red 'dent'.

She was nowhere near the chop saw.

Had she not been wearing her glasses, she'd most certainly have lost an eye. Her glasses did exactly what they were supposed to, because she was wearing them.

True story.
Think about that.

I've got a scary one too.

A few nights ago, I was turning down some shafts on a lathe, and the power went out. Our school has an emergency generator, which came on, but only powered a few emergency lights. To be safe, I hit the switch on the lathe, then proceeded to remove the part from the chuck to bring it to the next room. As I turned around to grab a rag, the power came back, the lathe started (with chuck key in chuck), and flung the heavy steel key 20 feet across the room and made a hole in the wall. Instead of turning off the power for the lathe, I turned off the power feed, which has the same handle and operates in the same way as the lever for power. If the power had come on a second later, the chuck key would have probably killed me.

-As for the metal chop saw, we always advise students to use a clamp. It's just so easy for the blade to catch the edge and send the part flying.

[Brandon_L]

I feel as if safety was the #1 concern we wouldn't be forced to adhere to this ridiculously strict deadline. If we have to be done by Tuesday, we will be done by Tuesday. If we're forced to drive through 12" of snow to get it done, then I guess we have to.

Not-so-long-story-short, if you don't want us driving through the snow to finish our robot, then don't make us.

</rant>

Seriously though, we've lost ~2 weeks to snow give or take a few days.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

I feel as if safety was the #1 concern we wouldn't be forced to adhere to this ridiculously strict deadline. If we have to be done by Tuesday, we will be done by Tuesday. If we're forced to drive through 12" of snow to get it done, then I guess we have to.

Not-so-long-story-short, if you don't want us driving through the snow to finish our robot, then don't make us.

</rant>

Seriously though, we've lost ~2 weeks to snow give or take a few days.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this exactly what he's saying to avoid?

There are (a few) more important things than your robot. One of them is your life. It's unfortunate that you haven't been able to finish your robot, but please don't let that fog your vision, as difficult as that may be.

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

I feel as if safety was the #1 concern we wouldn't be forced to adhere to this ridiculously strict deadline. If we have to be done by Tuesday, we will be done by Tuesday. If we're forced to drive through 12" of snow to get it done, then I guess we have to.

Not-so-long-story-short, if you don't want us driving through the snow to finish our robot, then don't make us.

</rant>

Seriously though, we've lost ~2 weeks to snow give or take a few days.

Come to California, no snow, better cookies

[ChaFla]

East PA checking in here. Lost ~10 days to snow so far, including last weekend, but fortunately the next snowstorm is (hopefully) going to hit us lightly.

[tStano]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Come to California, no snow, better cookies

Space Cookies, in fact.

[George C]

Originally Posted by magnets

I've got a scary one too.

A few nights ago, I was turning down some shafts on a lathe, and the power went out. Our school has an emergency generator, which came on, but only powered a few emergency lights. To be safe, I hit the switch on the lathe, then proceeded to remove the part from the chuck to bring it to the next room. As I turned around to grab a rag, the power came back, the lathe started (with chuck key in chuck), and flung the heavy steel key 20 feet across the room and made a hole in the wall. Instead of turning off the power for the lathe, I turned off the power feed, which has the same handle and operates in the same way as the lever for power. If the power had come on a second later, the chuck key would have probably killed me.

Precisely why many jurisdictions mandate magnetic switches. Might be worth looking in to.

[androb4]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Anyone else notice the URL for the photo? -http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default/files/uploadedFiles/Robotics_Programs/FRC/Game_and_Season__Info/2014/not-a-2015-game-hint.jpg

It clearly isn't.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

I feel as if safety was the #1 concern we wouldn't be forced to adhere to this ridiculously strict deadline. If we have to be done by Tuesday, we will be done by Tuesday. If we're forced to drive through 12" of snow to get it done, then I guess we have to.

Not-so-long-story-short, if you don't want us driving through the snow to finish our robot, then don't make us.

</rant>

Seriously though, we've lost ~2 weeks to snow give or take a few days.

Really? Priorities man. Yours are a lil out of whack.

Originally Posted by rsisk

Come to California, no snow, better cookies

Why didn't I get cookies while I was out there last time?

[George A.]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Ah, safety.

Just last week, a student was cutting a piece of 80/20 on a chop saw, holding it by hand. It got away from him, flew across the shop and whacked (hard!) a young lady. Right in the glasses.

The glasses did not shatter, but did get a nice scratch. The top edge of the glasses also hit the young lady in the forehead, leaving a small red 'dent'.

She was nowhere near the chop saw.

Had she not been wearing her glasses, she'd most certainly have lost an eye. Her glasses did exactly what they were supposed to, because she was wearing them.

True story.
Think about that.

Ironic how a smiliar but more gory situation happened to me my senior year.

I too was holding a piece of 80/20 on a chop saw by hand (instead of a clamp) the motor lurched and the piece came out of my hand and caught my other hand taking my pinky with it. There was a lot of blood and panic and thankfully I was able to get the finger reattached (if you're at the MAR circuit come find me and I'll show it to you)

Take the extra steps for safety people, I was lucky it was just my pinky, and not my hand or worse...