End of Year Purchases

[GB330033]

Well, here we are post-championship, the season is finished. I'm sure my team isn't the only one with some money leftover in the budget. We have about $2500 dedicated to Building Supplies (Tools, materials, etc) and $3500 for Computer Supplies (Anything electronic can qualify, for the most part) that we need to spend. Any suggestions on what to buy?

A little background on the team: Team 1255 is going into it's fourth year, third as a two-school team. We have a lot of seniors (Including myself) graduating, so the team will be left in young hands. I'd really like to leave the team with some nice tools to work with in the future, and improve the quality of the robots we produce. In the past three years 1255 has made it to the quarterfinals once, and semifinals twice at LSR, but hopefully that can improve.

Our current machine tools include: 12" Band Saw with a multipurpose blade, Small (10 or 12") bench drill press, small grinding station (With wire wheel and 1 grinding disc), chop saw, miter saw, and a belt/disc sander. We also have several portable power tools from DeWalt that we got in the large combo set. Finally, we have our trusty Dremel tool. That's about it as far as power tools go. For hand tools, we've got a big set of mechanics tools from Craftsman, multiple hammers/screwdrivers/etc, and all sorts of other good stuff.

That being said, can anyone think of what to spend our money on? Here are the ideas that have been tossed around thus far for "Building Supplies":
A new band saw to replace the broken one (We'd put a metal blade on it): $300
A 15" standing drill press: $320
Another DeWalt XRP drill: $250
One of those DeWalt radio/battery charger things: $130
Another set of mechanics tools (263 piece): $270
A DrillDoctor bit sharpener: $130
Another set of bits (Titanium coated): $80
Assorted replacement parts (Grinding wheels, Dremel accessories, saw blades, etc): ?

And that's about it.

That doesn't add up to $2500, in fact it wouldn't even break $1500. We've got a problem. What, in your experience, has been the most useful tool to have in your shop? Do we have the funds to purchase one? Am I overlooking something?

We haven't even touched Computer Supplies. I was thinking about going to our local RadioShack, which happens to still be stocked with Vex parts, and scooping up a bunch of stuff calling it "programming accessories". However, that wouldn't make much of a dent in $3500. We already have two laptops, so we don't really need anything like that. Once again, ideas are welcomed.

As a final note, due to the way our district does our budgeting, the money is "use it or lose it." We don't want to have any leftover, because if we do then they'll likely cut our budget by that much next year. So, we need the most bang for our buck.

Edit: I added some stuff that got split into two posts.