FRC Team 1712 Dawgma
Being a woodworker has provided me with many ways to help other people, and this was a prime example. My high school's robotics team was in need of a practice field for our robot to use, so I built the field components from sheet goods and 2x4's. I worked with Paul Downs, a world renowned cabinet and conference table maker. At Paul's shop, I used a Martin panel saw to break down large sheets of plywood into the proper sizes and assembled all of the components. The parts of the field are very large, so our team borrowed Paul's truck to move the field back to our school. The pictures below show our process and the final products. I now work for Paul during holiday-breaks and summers on the shop floor building beautiful tables for companies and organizations like the World Bank, Lockheed Martin, and the Eagles.
This photo shows the Martin Sliding Table Saw. All of the settings are digital, so you can precisely position the fence or length stop block within a thousandth of an inch. The blade height and angle are also adjusted digitally.
This picture shows the largest 2018 field element, the scale. The scale is a 15' long seesaw that the robot places milk crates on either side of. Teams then gain 1 point for every second that the scale is tipping in their favor. Other teams also have the chance to flip the scale back into their favor.
This pictures show 2/3 of the 2019 field. The objective of this game is to place polycarbonate hatch panels over the open ports and then place cargo balls behind them.