Hello fellow FIRST-ers. I have a question to ask of you. My team has been playing with the idea of making a page called Recycled FIRST. This site would be a collection of pictures and ideas of what teams do with leftover parts, such as older robots, or old playing fields, goals, and the like. For example, out of the goals used a couple years ago, we made a new workbench. I’m just wondering what the interest would be in a site like this. Would any other people out there be interested in submitting something? Or does anyone think that it might be useful to them? Any input would help, thanks!
Sounds like a really cool idea, almost like…“this old house” for FIRST! I’ve seen a few teams use the old goals ( from last year ) for seating purposes, or leaving stuff on. I’m not sure where ours are…I we managed to turn then on their sides and load them into an elevator…and take them to the University’s basement for storage…where lots of our other stuff collects dust.
One of our 2002 goals is now a robot cart.
Team 422 would be glad to submit pictures and short captions. Our 2001 ramp was converted into a giant work table for awhile, now trashed. 2002 goal casters were frequently used as dolly casters. 2003 bins… uh… take up space. We haven’t been smart enough to take them apart and put them in a corner, so they’re all stacked.
On a related note, I’m also building a small, cordless, portable drill press for an engineering class out of a recycled robot CIM transmission from 2002 (it broke and was unusable on the robot, so I got permission and used it).
Random un-named people on… someone’s… team also were thinking it might be neat to convert the giant old 2000 gas tank into an accumulator for a massive potato gun. Shh, I’ve said too much. 
2003 bins are used for storage of stuff… pneumatics, electronics, casters and wheels, etc
I think everyone used the floppies from 1999 as pillows at one point in time. I also tried to get my team back then to use the floppies as a bumper in 2000 but couldn’t get enough people to agree (we ended up going bumperless because of weight constraints).
Matt
*Originally posted by Matt Leese *
**I think everyone used the floppies from 1999 as pillows at one point in time. I also tried to get my team back then to use the floppies as a bumper in 2000 but couldn’t get enough people to agree (we ended up going bumperless because of weight constraints).Matt **
we use the floppies as little pillows to sit on at meetings… and our robots are used to practice when they aren’t being coathangers… we used the 2001 goals to goof off in, kinda like go-go hings but we kept getting yelled at for that, but we fit 3 people in them! that was fun… 
We actually used parts from our first year robot on our cart this year:p
we try to keep our bots together after every year, we made a robot to collect the attencance cards from each teacher out of some fisher price motors and left over bosh extrusion but the navigation system was never built for it. Other parts have been used to show how things work like pneumatics and things like that.
What about people? I’d offer my self to be recycled! 
Our 1st year and 2nd year’s robot have been dismantled into what - I don’t know. The past four years all our robots are in shape and able to be operated! 
The only thing I believe we recycled was our shipping crate from last year which we used as the shipping great for this year. It wasn’t pretty.
Hmm… We have an HDPE table…
I think we can get pictures.
This is the coolest thing we EVER did. We took the 1999 B.O.B. stripped it down to the drive and used it to help a girl at school with he therapy for CP. Mike De Pree is the student driving the chair for demonstration.
we built an entirely new practice bot out of the old practice bot and will again next year. (probably)
Good idea, but I would also add re-usable parts for robot purposes (i.e. if a particular model of motor was back again for another year of abuse) to the web site, that way if a team needs to experiment with one they can do so without fear of hurting the one to be used in the end product. I can picture it now: “firstgaragesale.com”
i am currently working on this
[IMG]http://www.chiefdelphi.com/pics/bin/1055622840linetrack500kb.jpg
Kinda off topic but the countertop that your circutboard is on was designed by my Dad. 
It just kinda caught my eye and “hey that looks familiar”
lol
we use our old robots, modify them, and compete in post season competitions. Since we are inactive its the only way we survive as a team and avoid dying out)
you want a challenge?
get your 2001 robot (ones designed to move the goals), modify it so that it can move the 2002 goals, without the help of engineers (students only).
or for fun:
build a 2003 robot in 3 weeks, again students only (no engineers).
yes they both have to comply to FIRST regulations
Of course, another use for recycled parts are the numerous bootleg Segways I’ve seen at competitions and kick-offs. By the way, if anyone has some plans for one of those, let me know.