Alright, so I was thinking of a fundraiser that would be fairly simple, unique, and have some kind of teachable moment. Here is my solution.
Take a box on wheels. Your old competition robot, a drivetrain you prototyped, anything. It just needs to be reliable, and preferably have pneumatic tires.
Build a big hopper on top, probably incorporating a trash can.
Over that, add a pneumatic piston with a plate, capable of flattening a soda can and, through gravity or a conveyor, dropping it into the hopper.
Spice up the robot with flashing lights, team logos, and a big red button.
Bring the robot (and some extra batteries) to the local tailgating area before a football game. (Make sure you have permission to do this, first.)
Offer to take empty drink cans by letting them feed the cans into the robot. (You may have to design that piston to accept larger-than-soda-sized cans–there are bigger ones out there.) For bonus points, let them operate the aforementioned big red button.
Talk more about the team if folks ask.
Sell the cans at the local scrap dealer.
Bada-bing. You’ve got a primer on pneumatics, fundraising, talking to people, and OI wiring (hey, big red buttons don’t come on the joysticks after all) all in one day. And you’ll get a chance to try a different drivetrain, since a FIRST field is decidedly far gentler on a robot than the asphalt of the outside world. (Okay, so the FIRST field gets rougher on robots when you add in other robots.)
Does anyone have suggestions to change or expand on this?
as i told you before when you explianed this to me… this is a very good idea. this will draw a lot of attention in the community itself. maybe, we will get more people to join FIRST. very good idea, Billfred.
You could do this at any large function with lots of people. (with permission as mentioned before) This could also benefit the site it’s done at since it may help keep the area cleaner. People will want to try out the crusher so they’ll throw thier cans in it instead of leaving them on the ground, picnic tables, storm sewers, shrubs, ect.
The only thing is if you’re living in a deposit state you will want to eliminate the crusher since your cans are worth more being returned intact. Here in CT it’s 5 cents a can/bottle but some states have it up to 10 cents. You will get more for your returnables than aluminum on a good day at a scrap yard.
surely don’t make it automated, b/c even when your a robot driving intoxicated is illegal.
Woot I <3 bad jokes, but in all seriousness I actually do like this idea, especially for football, and especially if the crushing process was wrather dramatic… like red button and boom desimates the can.
That is a good point, but I believe that a big part of the excitement would be the crushage of the cans.
As for the liquid runoff, just make sure you have something that catches it and goes to a bottle or something to keep it from dripping all over the place.
Jay - You’re right–this is what I get for growing up in a state with no deposit. Ignore that part if you’re in that kind of state.
Barry - I see two options. Either respectfully ask for them to throw other trash elsewhere, or create another bin on the robot for that sort of trash. (I know they make skinny wastebaskets, and it’s not like this robot has to be 36x30x60.) As for the content of the cans, I figure that you’d likely want to wash the cans before taking them in. (Run them through a car wash before bagging? Someone with experience in this, feel free to give ideas.)
NoodleKnight - Very. The best way around it I could think of was to make the enclosure for the crusher and can holder detachable from the drivetrain (which you’d want protected from the outside world anyway). Disconnect the electronics powering the crusher (and any other nifty lights), and you should be able to hose it out.
Stud Man Dan - The kids are underage, and 1293 is one year old, making both underage. This won’t be a problem.
Maybe just slap on a recycle only sign. Step it up one level and at the bottom of the crusher put a melting pot to melt those cans into a pool of aluminum! Of which you could use to build something!
The aluminum they use to make those cans is VERY low grade metal and I would doubt that you would want to make anything with it. Thought I would say this to keep anyone from trying to build their robot from recycled cans only to have it fall apart during shipping.
sounds good, but i would say don’t crush them…what do i know, i work at a redemption center
i know it takes the fun out of it, but how i look at it…the local scrap yard gives 30 cents for every pound of aluminum…cans are NOT that heavy…here in MA we get 5 cents for every can and bottle (glass and plastic)…i would say having 5 cents for any of them would be better than getting only cans…but hey, what do i know
also, it is very very very very messy. definetly have them deposit into a plastic bag or something…the smell/feel of old soda/alcohol is extremely disgusting. and believe me, touching it isn’t fun either(i’ve been elbow deep in crushed cans and bottles…ew)
$100 / $.05 = 2000 cans. I think you guys can forget about the fundraising aspect of this idea beacuse you are going to make almost nothing. You can make $100 much easier with any sort of food sale (or try our personal favorite). It still never hurts to get the team out and people talking, but these discussions about crushing cans or not are moot.
mmm, not necessarily true. Let’s just say you were in “P” college town for 8 home games with a maximum stadium capacity of 100,000 people. Not taking in legalities. If you had experienced team “#” with collection points (bins) set up and 3 robots throughout tailgating and game time. Use a rough number of 10,000 cans/bottles a game (I would be willing to bet that it would be low if you were willing to work for it).
10,000 cans * 8 games * .05 cents = $4000 pfft I wouldn’t shrug at that
Team 237 has done very successful bottle and can drives. We advertise ahead of time mentioning a location and time and have people stop by plus we drive (locally) to people who call us to pick up thier cans. Two years ago we made over $500 on bottles and cans in one Saturday afternoon. We filled a borrowed dump truck (small dump truck-about 4 yard bed), my Caprice wagon filled twice (I put a tarp and plastic drop clothes over the interior, collecting cans is very messy as rochnthehawk mentioned), and an Astro van.
So, my point is, you can make decent money off of returnables that have a deposit. One final note, if you do a can drive try to plan it right after a major holiday. This is when people have the most bottles and cans they’re looking to get rid of.
Now I know that Billfred was talking about nondeposit, basically collecting and crushing the cans as weight to be returned to a dealer. If you do this at a big game you should be able to make some money. For teams that are struggling every little bit helps. If they collect only $40 they will still be ahead and who knows what they could use this money for, a drill to help fabricate thier robot, sprockets for the robot, an endmill for thier Bridgeport, or to help offset the cost of shirts for thier team. That’s $40 they didn’t have before the fundraiser, but the main thing is they’re getting publicity for thier team and who knows if while doing this they stumble upon a new sponsor or someone willing to make a donation to thier team.
A can or bottle drive is a bit different than what was suggested here. That is definitley a reasonable way to make money because you are getting cans at a much higher rate. People aren’t going to be lining up to throw away a single can at a game. Even if you get a can every 5 seconds, $100 will take you nearly 3 hours.
As I said before, the publicity is still useful. Just one of those people throwing out their cans may be the owner of a small local company willing to donate money, services, or mentors.
you guys would be surprised at what redemption-airs can make…
building on the idea of can drives…we have regualers that come in every day at the redemption center i work at…here is what they do: go to a local busniess (fast food joint or whatever) and ask if they’d mind if you set up a trash can with a hole in the top for just cans bottles or whatever, and tell them why and that you’ll pick it up on day ‘x’. it helps the business because their trashcans don’t fill up quickly and they don’t have to despose of it, plus they are helping you guys out. there is a man that comes in every day with his car FULL, and he makes close to $2000 A WEEK…just some food for thought…
an idea for the non-crushing states. make a soda can launcher to shoot the cans up and into the trashcan. There are many ways you could do it, springs, pneumatics, etc. the higher you shoot the cans into the air, the bigger a crowd you’ll draw. extra credit for making the contraption as rube goldbergian as possible. super bonus points for making an electric one that uses induction to launch the cans.
One point here is that driving a robot around uses a lot of power. You might need to switch from motorcycle batteries to actual car batteries, as most unremarkable car batteries have 2x-5x the capacity of the batteries we use.
It wasn’t a fundraiser, but 364 shot t-shirts in the crowd at our football and basketball games this year. It really go the crowd to get pumped up when our team would be losing. We took our robot from 2004, and mounted a air compressed cannon (kind of like a spud gun, but with air) on it. Shooting at about 60 psi would launch the shirts about 50 yards up and over the stands.
(with permission as mentioned before) This could also benefit the site it’s done at since it may help keep the area cleaner. People will want to try out the crusher so they’ll throw thier cans in it instead of leaving them on the ground, picnic tables, storm sewers, shrubs, ect.