Being the cheapskate that I am, and that most of the teams in my school district do not have big budgets for buying practice field items, I designed a practice goal that uses 3D printed connectors and 3/8 inch dowel rods.
I uploaded all the files necessary to print your own connectors and all the cut lengths for the dowel rods to Thingiverse.
I hope someone finds it helpful. You can use a plastic trash bag for the high goal and a piece of posterboard to create the surface of the low goal. I wanted to create a target for our teams to practice shooting at a high goal when they are in their workshop and not at our practice field.
This is really awesome! The only thing is, this does require that the school actually owns a 3D printer, and well… if your school can afford a 3D printer I would assume that it can probably afford practice goals for your vex team. Just my 2 cents
Very cool! These are probably better than the real thing! We had one broken connector in the box before we even touched them and another fell apart after we looked at it (ok, we did touch it…but that’s it!). The connectors VEX is providing are junk. Good thing they must realize it so they give you several extra when you get the kit. I’m really wondering how they will survive any bit of usage though…pretty sure I will be printing replacements at some point.
Not quite how school budgets work in reality. That printer may have been purchased for some class curriculum and they are simply taking advantage of that. By your logic, schools should be able to afford everything they need anytime because they drive around millions of dollars of school buses.
As I see it, the high goal is the crucial part required for practice (and in my opinion is the only goal worth aiming for), which a can be very easy to make. I know of teams who have simply used pvc pipe with a wire goal top bent and duct taped on, which any team should be able to achieve.
Personally I used a large thin sheet of coreboard plastic I happened to have access to which I cut so that it folds to make a triangular prism that stands up on its own, with a top opening that matches the vex goal specifications. If anyone is interested I can try dig up the plans I used.
Just my $0.02 worth
Ahh, true. I guess you can just borrow the engineering / art depts 3D printer for printing your net Still I like 4874U’s solution of a piece of paper and a metal IKEA rack Who needs 3D printed parts?
Still I like 4874U’s solution of a piece of paper and a metal IKEA rack 