copperhead's drum

I took Copperhead's drum to Rick Wilson's general machine shop a few weeks ago, and asked him if he would build up the teeth a little bit with weld - to restore them to their original shape - and to drill out the ends of the shaft a little more to save some weight. I got them both back yesterday, and he did a great job. Thanks Rick! I just need to now grind down the corners - or better yet, have one of you guys grind down the corners and shape the teeth! YAY! You'll actually be doing something! SO. My dad said that at Hydrogel (his company) they are NOT running production between Christmas and New Year's, so that is our perfect window of opportunity to get out there and do stuff...

Thanks Chippendale for your contribution, and thank you to the three people who donated a total of $40 a few meetings ago. I will write that check out over break and get that money into the account.

I need to straighten out our latest RobotMarketplace order... actually the last two... and get our parts!
-The first order came at the end of the week before last, and was supposed to have two battery chargers in it, but only came with one. I called them immediately, and they said they would ship out the other charger Monday. It didn't come before break, so I don't know when we will have it.
-The second order was probably kinda sorta my fault. I was trying to buck the system and save money by not paying for shipping and picking up the items because I knew that they were opening a retail store in Bradenton. So I submitted a purchase order online, and they make you fax it as well and stuff, so the online order total included shipping... and the faxed PO didn't.

I asked them to call me, but they were busy with their relocation, and couldn't/didn't. So I will call them on Monday and find out where are stuff is, what I can get and what I can't. They called the school, and told them that the gearmotors were on backorder, and the Griffin-40 SC was discontinued. SO. That means we wait for the gearmotors (because they recommended what we used last year - NO! those were P.O.S. motors!) and use the SpeedMax-40 SC's that we used in DO last year. They work fine, the Griffin just had a brake function.

OKAY. Now for a serious build day consideration. MONDAY. Monday, the 22nd is the first day we can build. If anyone is around and wants to help, let me know. I can take three or four people. We're gonna get there around 9-ish, and leave around 1:30 or 2 depending on how much we can do.

We need to get things in gear because we need time to debug these things once they're built. If something doesn't work right, we need to know before competition.

Julien, see if your dad's company will be willing to donate again this year.

It's time to get to work!