Favorite Tool by Team

[Michael Hill]

We do a lot of sheet metal work, and these are fantastic: http://www.amazon.com/Original-Faste.../dp/B0093QWZCS

They're also great for non-sheet metal work.

[Foster]

Originally Posted by tr6scott

Seeing the strippers were covered previously.

I'll go with the Weidmuller PZ 6 Roto Wire Crimping Tool for making the ferrels connections all the new Cross the Road electronics use...

No more spider legs, no more lose terminations, no connection failures.

https://youtu.be/lL8AGNDVR2g

I watched the video and going "ho hum, yet another crimper" and then they spun the crimp head around so you crimp from the nose. AMAZING!!!

Great design, but a little pricy, but I can see how it would make life lots easier.

[Hgree56]

Personally, my favorite tool in our shop is our 5lb. rubber mallet. It is my favorite because when even someone(more than likely its me) is in a poor mood, we hand them the mallet. On one side it has "Hows your attitude?" written on it. Changes everyone's mood right away.

[GeeTwo]

Our most commonly needed tool is definitely the 5/32" allen wrench.

We talk a good bit about using the precision tuner for percussive maintenance. (the P.T. is the rubber mallet).

Controls was revolutionized in the 2014 season when we bought some real crimping tools, rather than using a multi-tool that's almost decent for automotive terminals for everything from Duponts to Anderson battery connectors.

I think we've used every attachment on my Swiss Army Knife (including the corkscrew) at one point or another.

[cgodzyk]

Met a guy on electric snowmobile team in college, showed us this cool tool for crimping terminals on 6 AWG wire for batteries. Put the wire and terminal in the tool and then either used hammer or small arbor press to crimp, depending on which was available.



http://www.temcoindustrialpower.com/...rs/TH0007.html

[IKE]

This is my favorite 25 pitch chain tool:

http://www.davesmotors.com/s.nl/it.A/id.2258/.f

[MrForbes]

Used to be the Rotex punch. But we haven't been in that shop for five years.

[waialua359]

Zip tie gun made by Panduit!

We even have a sponsor who lives in San Diego that ships us tons of zip ties and guns every year.

[Jeremy Germita]

Originally Posted by jwfoss

A pneumatic tubing cutter will save you hours of chasing leaks and is a staple on FRC558.

I second this. Crooked tubing cuts are a leading cause of pneumatics leaks on systems I've seen.


If you're not cutting small (>14AWG) wire and zip ties with Hakko flush cutters, you're missing out. Comfiest cutters I've ever used, stays sharp forever, and has the most flush cut I've ever seen. Great for cutting zip tie ends!

If you do any work with #25 chain, you need to get a Team 221 Dark Soul Chain tool. It's the easiest chain breaking/joining tool I've ever used.

I love this thread. I've been compiling a list of parts and tools for us to purchase in preparation for 2016, so this is definitely helpful.

[Ari423]

Team 423's most used tool would probably be our 7/16" ratcheting wrenches. We have at least 3 of them and a few non-ratcheting wrenches, and there are still never any in the drawer.

Our favorite tool is probably our spring-loaded wire strippers (like the picture but with yellow handles).

They work really well and choosing what size wire you have is easy even without the gauge labeled on the wire. Probably not as easy to use as the gauge-agnostic strippers posted earlier in the thread. We call them cachuk-cachucks after the sound they make when you use them. That sound can be heard from any spot in the room throughout our meetings, even if no one is stripping wires, simply because it's fun to use.

[BBray_T1296]

My personal favorite is the pneumatic rivet gun our district bought for us a few years ago. A Godsend for the unfortunate soul tasked with installing 100+ rivets on assembly day. One can install many dozens of rivets a minute working casually

Funny story about this, in 2013 we needed to replace a whole bunch of rivets in short time on our shooter mid-competition. We didn't have our shop compressor at competition (pesky rules) so we installed a quick-connect fitting to our robot and used it to operate the rivet gun. One of my proudest moments.

[hectorcastillo]

We have this hand riveter that we call the "Red Baron". It's named party after the color of its handles but also because the team member who bought it is a red-head and was the original "Red Baron". It might not be the most useful tool seeing as how we own a pneumatic riveter, but the Red Baron definitely has a lot of sentimental value to our team

[Seth Mallory]

When they choose to use them the students brains are my favorite tools.

[MaGiC_PiKaChU]

pneumatic dremel... one of my friends accidentally used it on his fingers and got to the bone... He WAS wearing gloves

[hectorcastillo]

Metric adjustable wrench!