Now that most teams are already well into there preseason i thought it would be interesting to see what updates teams have been able to make to their workshops over the last year since this thread was posted,
We have been very fortunate this year and have gotten two major upgrades, First, to our fab shop with RoboShot automated injection molder, and a CNC plasma cutter. To our knowledge this injection molder is the first of the type in any high school in the country.
And second, to our programming area, with 6 new dedicated desktop workstations and a dedicated mezzanine above the shop floor just for programming.
Prior to these upgrades our shop also included:
-Tormach CNC lathe
-Partners Machine CNC mill
-CNC router
-TiG Welder
-Manual Mill
-Chop Saw
-Band Saw
Yeah… “Envy” isn’t quite the right word… I don’t even know what having that would be like.
I guess it makes RoboPrides success that much sweeter, knowing what we’re up against.
Your students have such a great opportunity learning in that environment. I’m sure that workshop came after alot of sweat and tears. Keep up the good work!
Yes I would imagine that there are a lot of us, probably most of us, who could never envision anything remotely like this. We have a 15’ x 25’ space next to the masonry shop with a chop saw and a table top drill press and assorted hand tools. The big addition this year was the installation of windows in the wall separating the shops to keep the cement dust out, or at least less, of our shop. There have been window holes since the space was carved out several years ago, but no windows.
However, a couple of blue banners and a collection of medals do tend to brighten up the space.
This is what our shop looks like. The pictures are from last year and dont include the new computers we added as well as a CNC router. For those that are interested I included our shop layout PDF that shows the entire shop layout
Attached is a floor plan of our building. 4 and 7 are our work spaces, although 7 is mostly just a few work tables, the rest is various HVAC equipment. 4 has more empty space for practice and building. 5 is our main meeting room. Most meetings begin and end there. 10C is our closet, but we have a corner in 4 for storage. 12 is used as a backup meeting room when 5 is occupied, but we shouldn’t have issues with that since the motorcycle class that sometimes used 5 moved.
It has taken years to get to where we are now. We allocate a portion of our budget every year to upgrading the shop and adding more computers. In addition we are always on the lookout for machine equipment donations from companies around the area. For example, last summer we added shop air and the year before that we got an equipment donation as well as converted a minimill to a CNC mill. This summer we added an additional toolbox, more computers and a CNC router.
Best advice for teams that are growing is to try to invest in your space and your teams future. Putting some of your funds away to improve your shop and add capabilities or more touch points for students can pay off more down the road then spending money on single use items like extra travel competitions or parties. Anyways I hope more people post some pictures. It is great seeing how other teams work.
Hardinge HLV-H Toolroom lathe. I am sufficiently jealous, those are wondrous pieces of machinery.
This… just makes me so sad inside.
I’m going to go cry now.
I’ve been firmly in this position before. 1678 has only had good facilities for the last 2 years. Prior to that we came up with whatever solutions we could.
2005-2006 seasons we worked in a computer lab and the hallway outside it with the networking server room as storage. 2007-2008 seasons we worked out of a portable classroom(which still had to be used as a classroom) and used our old robot crate as a storage closet. 2009-2013 seasons we worked out of a portable classroom and a 20’ shipping container for storage and “shop” space. Starting 2011 we also had half of another 20’ container for extra storage space as well. 2014 season we moved a Bridgeport into our shop container. We had the school put a 3-phase outlet in the portable classroom and wired the container with 4 circuits(3-phase to the mill, 1 for the lights, 1 for north outlets, 1 for south outlets) split off the 3 phases to hook up with a 75’ 3-phase extension cable. 2015 season we moved our shop/build/practice space into a dedicated classroom, had another room for the other things we do, and a shipping container for storage. 2016 season we turned the shop/build/practice room into just our shop and assembly space. We also got to move into the 2 other attached rooms on the same building block. The small middle room became our Business&Media room. The really large room is now a robotics classroom with room for a set up half field to practice driving. It used to be the old-old music room so it has 2 sets of really deep cabinets the full room height and width. There are also 7 smaller side rooms we use for various purposes, one is for our programming team, one for electrical, one for our 3D printer and plotter, 3 for storage, and one is a kitchen with a washer/dryer and a 2 burner electric stove.
It’s a slow process that takes a lot of effort and diplomacy, but don’t give up on it.
Our new building is 3 months behind…let’s hope were are moved in before the build season begins. We will have 2 classrooms 30’x60’, a 30’x60’ manufacturing lab and a 30’x60’ robotics practice/drive room with a covered outside work area.
Just a quick question that’s more specific to your situation. There have even been threads talking about how quickly 1678 has risen to the level of the best teams in the world. You mention that you’ve gotten more and better space the past few years. So have you found it’s been easier to ask for donations and/or build space since you’ve become more well known and more successful as a team? Or has the increased space and machinery helped you become more successful as a team? Or are these two happenings not directly related, and it was some other factor of your team organization that caused you to get better work spaces and more competitive success as a team?
Sorry if this is a bit of a chicken and the egg question; I’m really just wondering if your competitive success has made it easier to fund raise.
More the former than the latter. Another notable reason we have gotten the space has been the robotics class our head coach has been teaching the last 2 years. The space and machinery are not the reason we are able to field the world class robots that we do. They certainly make it easier to produce such a robot, but it is not a requirement. The biggest thing that all that stuff gives us is the ability to engage more students.
We build world class robots by narrowing the scope of our designs to what is vital to win at Champs without requiring another specific robot type. Then we do whatever it takes to make it work. We were able to make this work just fine with a laser cutter sponsor, a few bench top machines and a Bridgeport in a shipping container. We have just changed how we utilize our resources in order to accomplish our goals now that we can rely more on our own manufacturing capabilities.
The vast majority of our sponsorship money has historically come from just 4 sponsors for many years, UC Davis, DJUSD, DMG Mori, and Schilling Robotics/FMC Technologies. We have worked very hard to develop and maintain a working relationship with these groups, invite them to competitions, keep them updated, etc. We don’t just call them up once a year asking for money, we make sure they see and understand the huge impact their contributions make to our team and our students. We run summer camps for UCD, a WiSTEM conference with DMG, teaching a robotics class at the high school, and I think Schilling/FMC just likes to support what we do(I’m sure there is something we do however). Their support has grown with us over the last several years as our program has expanded and actually required that level of funding to support our ambitions. Our success has made it easier to raise funds, but if we were not as successful we wouldn’t need the same level of funding. So I would say that the two are definitely tied together.
Too funny, except we are in a similar boat.
Since the school district is experiencing high growth, we are grateful to keep our build space.
The last few years we have been putting our material and old robots in wheeled storage racks.
This allows us to move these items out of the shop and into the hallway so we can free up some additional space.
Dave
We bought one of these 6 or 7 years ago. pretty nice, but it was sometimes difficult to travel with due to it’s length. It also seemed a bit more delicate than some other chargers we’ve had (it had some stations die over time).
We still use it in our shop but have different chargers for competition.
Very nice upgrades. Hopefully these upgrades come with attending a second regional? Based on these upgrades and recent success (1 pick or finalist each of the past three seasons), I’m expecting a breakout year!
Yea, we are definitely doing 2 regional this year. Milwaukee for our first and 7 Rivers for our second. If we don’t get in there we will go to Chicago.
