We noticed that sample game objects and the bump were being sold individually in the vex store, but not the goal. We had planned to try some ideas on de-scoring stashed buckyballs but realized there was no way to acquire a sample goal without buying an entire field. We have very little funds and are not able to afford a whole field (for sack attack we borrowed what we could) but really would like to have a goal to test on. Are there any plans to release maybe a goal kit to allow teams to test on it when they don’t have an entire field? Would this be considered? Is anyone else interested in this?
I know we can build one (and we will if we can’t get our hands on one in time) but I thought it would be nice to have the real deal when testing, especially when dealing with small and precise measurements.
thats what the majority of the teams did back in 2009 elevation when VEX was just starting out and very little schools had the funds for official game sets
You could buy the plastic and then lightly score it on the sections to make the bends (most likely haven’t tested it myself) and then rivet or duck tape the sections together. Talk to a local FRC team they should be more than happy to help you out; especially if they have a machine shop.
This is how we bent polycarbonate last year, but found that it significantly weakened the polycarb and eventually snapped. For a goal that will probably be used heavily and be knocked into during practice, I don’t think it would be a good idea XD it certainly is an easy and clean way to make a bend though.
The way we now bend polycarbonate is to place it in a vice, and simply bend it with our hands. It works quite well, and the bends are strong.
At the moment, in order to get a goal it costs you $500. If they sold a goal for $80 or something, the most a team would have to spend is maybe $250 for the bump and two goals. The barrier isn’t worth spending the extra money for, and so no one would do it.
That isn’t really correct.
The VRC field objects & elements are not profit centers for VEX Robotics. However, we need to make sure every item we carry makes business sense. In the case of the VEX Toss Up High Goals, teams who would like to do basic testing can prototype them very simply out of cardboard, or even by putting a trashcan on a stack of phone books.
Those teams who need to prototype and practice with more detail should look into investing in the full field set or building their own. It does not make sense for us to carry each individual piece of the field.
I made one for practice…2 24" x 12" 1/16" thick polycarbonate, bent at the 4 inch mark (how long the sides are in the official vex document) with my metal working brake at 60 degrees, and then just used packing tape to join the two sides together. I drilled the 4 holes and attached it to the field sides and it works great.
because I used “no-name-brand” lexan the cost was less than 10 dollars. If I really wanted to I could have even used the same pop rivet connections that vex uses but it didn’t seem to be worth the bother.
Also because i had the metal working brake it took me about 5 minutes to build the whole structure including packing tape time.
Oh and although duct tape might even be stronger, it would give the driver extra visual cues probably making it easier to score so I chose to stay with the clear packing tape.
