Hi CD, over at FRC 5026 we’ve opted to build a full-size wooden version of the REEFSCAPE BARGE for our practice field. Please find a link to the CAD and (brief) drawings below in case this is useful to any other teams.
The pillars in our build are borrowed from our last year practice field where we had already assembled 4x 4x4 “truss” pieces of the same size that appears in this year’s field. Those are assembled with a combination of wood screws and Versa Lock 6" lag screw replacements. The new beams will be assembly from 14 ft 2x4s and 1/2 in ply with wood screws.
The april tag mounts will be CNCed, though there is currently ~1/4 in of error in the model context currently. If you’d like to make these we may update the CAD soon.
We have not assembled this yet, so have yet to report back there were any build difficulties. Thanks!
FIRST published the ‘at home’ plans as well for all field elements and even two variants of the reef, depending on if you buy the official pipes or make your own at home.
We’ve purchased the nets (AndyMark) and side pipes (home improvement store) and plan to adapt the panels from the Playing Field at home plans to mount them up on top of the Barge.
We used zip ties to attach the mesh fabric that the at-home Barge plans suggested (linked here). After team members tossed the balls in just a few times, the mesh was ripping from the zip ties. I agree that sewn pockets or metal grommets would be the pro version and might even be necessary for prolonged use. We ended up just doing a bunch of zip ties to try to dissipate the force.
I didn’t get a good picture of it but below is the best one I have.
This is fantastic. We just went with 16 foot 2x8 that we cut down to I think 14 ish feet and then built vertical uprights by sandwiching a 4x4 between 2 2x4s.
The thing I love about yours is there is no truss in the center support. We ended up having to add a truss on either side of the barge to keep it from swinging when we get 6 robots trying to climb.
This is drastically simpler for the same impact. Thanks for sharing this picture.
If we had used dual 2x8s (and only a few top/bottom plates) we could still have the 1 ft cross section. The vertical cross section is likely not critical since the net supports and april tag mounts can be built to suit.
I’ve also seen some pictures from 1678’s field of all ply dimensionally-accurate-looking truss sections.
This likes an amazing setup for practicing. The only thing I would caution with your barge is when the balls fly into your field net, they will hit a solid bottom causing them to bounce. I don’t see anything solid at the bottom of your net. Don’t know if its important to you, but it might affect the way your robot shoots or your human player practices.
You might have a 2x4 inside the net going across I just can’t see, in which case…forget I said anything lol
Hey there fellow FIRST aficionado!
I hope this finds you in good health. Let’s get into the meat and potatoes of why I’m reaching out to you. I was just wondering what are those fascinating brackets that you use to construct and hold together the reef (I can barely hold myself together with this game reveal LOL). Would you perhaps have a CAD file? Fusion 360 is preferred! LOL. If you could be a doll, slide me that file slime! (This highschool kids are teaching me such slang! LOL). Much appreciation with gracious professionalism and with regards,
I just realized the the official FIRST practice Barge doesn’t have a bar under the net. I thought you built that custom. I feel like this is a huge discrepancy that will burn teams at week 1.
Lol! I hear you! So I found the gussets that hold the PVC Reef poles together while browsing here on CD. Thrifty Bot sells the 55 degree gussets to buy but they also provided a guide on putting it all together and the CAD files. Here’s the link.
The gussets could be made out of steel, wood, aluminum, poly carb, whatever anyone wants. We chose steel because we have a CNC Plasma cutter but the Cranberry Alarm ri3d made them out of poly carb. I’ve seen a different ri3d team on here made them out of wood
A better pic of the reef below. Also, our team members thought the poles looked like bazookas.
Correct! We used the official team plans from FIRST. This is a major issue for sure. I feel like the team plans this year overall were quite poor generally (reminds me of the Charge Station balance thing from 2023 which didn’t translate well). That’s why I was so impressed by what your group cooked up!
