Team 612 was wondering how does everyone take there tools to the championship event. For years our team has been taking a charter bus to the event and taking materials hasn’t been a problem but this year we want to try to fly the event.
So especially to all you California teams or anyone else who is very far away, how do you take your pit/tools/spare parts to the championship event?
Back when I was in high school, my team (201) would always fly to Nationals (yes, it was called that then!) in Florida, and we would take our tools with us on the plane as checked baggage. We put as much as we could into the shipping crate with the robot, and then took everything else in a pair of KOP totes, which were each checked as a bag by one of our adult mentors. We were a bit limited as to what we could bring - it was basically one small toolbox worth of essential stuff. We figured that we would bring anything we knew we needed to have, and then if we needed a tool we hadn’t thought of, we could borrow it from another team. It worked pretty well, since we never had any major work to do on the robot by that point in the season, but I can see why it could be a problem if you had a lot of things to do. Plus we always got comments on how neat and tidy our pit area was, because we didn’t have that much stuff!
We just traveled to arizona from boston for the arizona regional. We packed all of our tools into a few different luggage bags and toolboxes and made sure not exceed the 50 pound limit in each one. We just checked them under the plane with no problem.
Now getting batteries on a plane, is a completely different can of worms.
We located a shipper willing to sponsor us by shipping a pallet of material to Atlanta and back.
We ship most of our tools with the robot in the crate. We only keep with us absolutely necessary tools to work on the practice robot, etc. We then check these things in a tote or bag when it’s time to fly. Last year we checked our spare/practice robot arm and transmissions in a ski bag.
Haha, if you remember the shape of our arm last year, it looked like a rifle in the ski bag. It took a little while to get through the security while they ran a bunch of tests on it.
Team 93 is generously transporting our tools down to Atlanta via bus for us. Our team will be flying.
We were able to get sponsorship from UPS- they give us a weight limit and a box limit, and we fit within it. If we go over, we pay for the difference. It usually saves us about $500.
We are getting all our stuff (including batteries) to Hawaii by means of approximately 10 of the KOP crates at approximately 46 lbs each checked onto the plane. 696 did a similar thing to Atlanta last year.
We use a scale and some luggage. We stuff the bags to about 48lbs, then check them. If they make weight, we ship them. Worked great for us last year. We shipped about 100lbs of misc tools and things across the country.
In the past, we’ve checked crates as the second piece of luggage, however, some airlines have now changed their regulations and only allow one piece of checked luggage per person; they charge $25 for a second piece. So be sure to check with your airline well in advance, if you plan on using this method. This year, I think we’re planning on ground-shipping our tools. Things like rivets, we’ll order from McMaster-Carr and have them ship directly to Atl, instead of shipping to us and then having us re-ship them to Atl.
I think the first thing you need to do is ask “do we really need to take this?” for each item in your tool box/spares box. When I read of a team taking ten KOP boxes, or a dozen batteries, I can’t help but think that some judicious editing of the inventory would save a lot of hassle and cost. Remember that a) you only have a 10’x10’ space in the pits, b) if you need to use a drill press there is one in the machine shop… or another team’s pit and c) If you should make it all the way to Einstein, and run out of juice, every team there will be happy to lend you a battery for your next match.
On a similar note, designing your pit display for easy transportation also reduces shipping costs. Our pit display for the past four years has been designed to fit into a box not much larger than a shoe box. Well, at least the joints of the pit display fit into that box. Then when we get to wherever we are flying to (usually Toronto) we rent a minivan pop out to Home Depot, pick up some 2x4s and 2x6s and assemble a pit area using the lumber for a cost of about $30… much less than the cost of shipping. At the end of the tournament there is always a local team willing to take some free lumber back to school with them.
If, however, you absolutely must ship a heavy load of tools across the country, try contacting a local freight expeditor in the yellow pages. These are people/companies that book passage for freight on the countless semi-trailers (and other modes of commercial transport) criss-crossing the continent, and typically for fees lower than FedEx, UPS or Shepard will charge.
I guess part of what I’m getting at is that every kilo of freight shipped by air consumes more fuel and emits more greenhouse gas that each kilo shipped by ground… which has higher emissions than each kilo left at home.
Pack smart and pack light.
Jason
I think that teams talking about shipping tools to the event through discounted or free means need to take a careful look at the shipping guidelines.
254 shipped a pallet to the Hawaii regional, and will be shipping it to Atlanta from here.
We intended to FedEx it at a substantial discount to the drayage site. After talking to Shepard, they made it clear to us in no uncertain terms that we had to ship it through Shepard Logistics. They didn’t care that we were providing our own waybills for every leg of the trip.
This seems strange to me, as FedEx is one of their official partners, and their airbills give you a choice of FedEx or Shepard Logistics. Furthermore, in 2006 we sent tool crates to Atlanta for 1868 and 254 directly to drayage through FedEx, and had no problem. Last year we shipped a pallet home from Atlanta via FedEx using our own airbills, through Shepard, and had no problems. I don’t know if the rules changed this year, or what.
716 usually does this: the students on the team and most of the mentors fly down to Atlanta. Two of our mentors pack up one of their trucks with all of our tools and equipment, and they switch off driving the whole way down.
We’re out of Connecticut, so it’s a long drive already- if you’re coming from farther away than that, I would probably reccomend trying to find an alternate method; it’ll probably make your life easier than driving. (:
This year 1629 is taking a different approach. All of the students and most of the mentors are flying down, but one mentor is driving the tool truck to Atlanta. He’s also taking all of the luggage that we would normally check so that we don’t have to bother with baggage claim.
Then again, we are from Maryland so it’s a considerably shorter trip than from California.
That and the batteries. How many did we have??
Oh, and we carry zip ties for the totes. That way we can seal them after TSA has checked them.
If I remember right, last year all our 07 batteries were shipped with the robot (about 7-8). We used 2006 or earlier batteries to practice with. We borrowed some from 294. I think we kept the chargers (or a few of them) and shipped them when we flew.
This year we have the 07’s to practice with.
We ziptied ours, too. Back in 2001, we used padlocks, but after they changed the security rules, we switched over to zipties. We’d let the TSA person at the desk check the bin, then run a ziptie through the loops on each side to seal it shut. It worked pretty well.