Your favorite/most useful tool?

[f22flyboy]

What was your favorite or most useful tool this year's bot construction

Mine had to be a Dremel rotary tool

My brilliant idea for a new Dremel marketing campaign

"They say that to a man with a hammer every problem is a nail; To a man with a Dremel, every problem is solved"

And please keep the "Duct Tape" and "Hammer" replies to a minimum

If this isn't in the right category sorry

[wwrye]

maybe wire clippers..

[Thunder360]

I had 2 tools that were my best, A test light and my "Gator" grip.

[Duke 13370]

gotta love the multimeter

[skrussel]

belt sander..... no, the dental tools I bought on Ebay.....no, the horizontal band saw.....no, the ....aw geez, I can't pick just one!!

[MikeDubreuil]

Sorry, I'm a programmer... laptop.

[Specialagentjim]

Mouse with 8 buttons and a scroll wheel

(yeah, im an animator and chiefdelphian [as in addict, not one that works for them])

[sevisehda]

10 pound sledge, for fixing bent shafts... and freshman.

[Vincent Chan]

The team freshman... er...

I like the robowrench, socket wrench, and all-in-one stripper/cutter/crimper. Robowrench is just nifty and generally fun to play with. Socket wrench is so beautiful when a bolt/nut needs to be tightened. The all-in-one is very very convenient-- we need several more next year.

[hacksaw692]

*points to user name*

I also have a liking to the spring loaded center punch, the socket wrench, and the lime green tape measure.

[Katie Reynolds]

My awesome wire stripper. Or maybe my baby screwdriver - without it, how else can you get those speed controller screws set? Or maybe my 18.8v Milwaukee Hammer Drill. That thing's got power! Eh, it's one of those three!!

- Katie

[DanLevin247]

I'd have to say our CNC lathe....I've never used it, seen it being used, or know of a time when it WAS used...but it just looks cool.



( we've got the CNC lathe and CNC mill in the local university's machine shop, which we use, so it's not really ours...but whatevr, i can still pretend )....


Other than that, I like the lathe and the ever so convient de-burring tool.

[Clark Gilbert]

My favorite has to be the Rotozip. If you need something Rotozipped you yell for me, and for some reason people on my team seem to think i have some sort of fascination with it.

Conversation at our shop tonight:

Andy Baker - "Hey, anyone want to Dremel this off?"
Clark (Me) - "Dremel...HA...a dremel is a woman's tool...be a man and use the RotoZip!"

[Gadget470]

First, Dan, That's not a CNC, that's a mill with digital readout and a normal lathe. CNC's are Computer Numeric Control. i.e. program it, let it work. That lathe has no readout, that's what calipers are for. I used them both last year.
--

My favorite tool this year? ClenchWrench.. I was put in charge of pnuematics. Given a pair of these babies and I was set. So much faster that normal wrenches, and had a bit of a ratcheting to it.

Less actual work + Less time used = Efficiant = Yay.

[Andy Baker]

While cleaning out an old lab at Delphi, some people wanted to send a hand-held ultrasonic welder to salvage... but noooo...

Mark Koors (TechnoKat engineer extraordinare), grabbed it and it became TechnoKat proprety... and we just used it for the first time tonight.

So, now my favorite tool is a handheld ultrasonic welder. No rivets, no glue, so screws... super cool.

Andy B.