Workshop

My Workshop

My workshop is in the basement of my house. It's a little hard to get the tanks in and out, but what can you do ? I have pretty basic tools. There's a drill press, a small lathe, a soldering and aluminum brazing station, small arbor press, MIG welder, some woodworking power tools, and the usual assortment of hand tools. There's also a station for electronics assembly.

There's also a lot of storage for the mechanical, electrical, computer, and electronics part that invariably accumulate with robotics related hobbies. I have a decent stock of paintball marker parts for the R/C Tank Combat vehicles.

I do the software in the nice, clean, comfortable office upstairs.

One problem I have is that the tanks are too big to lift onto a bench for servicing. Even without the batteries (about 28 lbs), the things are just too heavy and bulky. I used a rope hoist for a while, but just before the last battle (05-2009) the rope slipped and the tank dropped about three feet ! The damage was minimal, but I didn't want to risk it again. Plus, the rope hoist was difficult to use. I saw that Harbor Freight was having a sale on small electric hoists and I decided to install one.

I built the trolley from a 1/4" piece of aluminum 'L' that I had in the shop. I used the lathe to put a slight taper on the trolley wheels and 3/4" bolts to work as axles. I mounted the trolley to the I-beam that supports my house and bolted the hoist to the trolley. The hoist is rated at 440lbs, which is plenty for an R/C tank. I can hoist a tank up and move it laterally to the bench. See the movie, below.

The movie below shows the hoist in action: