Hello Everyone!
I am part of a team completing a project for Engineering Design & Development and we need your help! If you can, please take this short (very short, like 5 questions) survey for us to give us insight into the needs of teams during competitions. You will remain completely anonymous and it will really help us out. I will post the results of our project when we are finished.
Thanks!!
Click Here For The Survey
I had to laugh when I saw this topic. Students stress out about how to build robots, while adults fixate on managing parts inventory and storing tools. This toolbox, or its predecessor, is the most popular in the Pacific Northwest: http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/1000/16/1614a2e0-137c-4c48-9d83-61f3692cad62_1000.jpg
Usually, in our class, we go with Stanley tool boxes. They are pretty cheap and portable, as well as they can hold a pretty good amount of stuff. Here’s some links with tool boxes on a budget:
Late last season I started using these for tournament supplies – one box per field. They are awesome.
While the Home Depot cantilever-lid tool boxes are what I see most, I also see a lot of the rolling Stanleys. My only (potential) issue with the tall Stanleys is that the big bottom box can easily turn into the Black Hole of Lost Parts.
We prefer the Milwaukee storage units. Durable and inexpensive. Like $25 at Home Depot. Plus we sort of like the fact that they are red.
[attachment:5966838fbca22]We actually just got this exact toolbox. It’s pretty good at it’s job judging from my time using it.
@Tesla529 - I like your toolboxes! We went with the really-low-budget-but-works-for-us toolboxes from Ace Hardware. $7.50 each. We have 3 of them, labeled Toolbox 1, 2 and 3, with stuff organized by usefulness. Something like “Who has Toolbox 2?” is a common phrase in our lab – everyone knows what’s in each. Bonus: the lids are removable, so when we’re in the lab we take the lids off and put them underneath the box so that it takes up less table space. I’ll add that we are a 1-robot team, so we don’t need to bring scads of stuff when we go to tournaments.
http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pACE3-21749872enh-z7.jpg
I love the 3 or 4 drawer Plano tackle boxes for small parts and larger 20x10x10 tub for long metal parts. I use the Harbor Freight cloth tool bags for the battery chargers and extra battery packs. That gives you three things to carry, so with the robot and 4 roboteers everything gets in the event in one pass.
The smaller drawers in the Plano boxes means that teams can’t hoard tons of parts, but have more than enough for any thing they want to build.
