Round 1 of 4 complete.

Insert 168673 quarters to continue.

That’s alot of quarters. Today was my last final exam, and with that out of the way, the summer season begins.

Quite alot has happened in the past year, and I think this site suffices in documenting all of it. I can’t say that I’m particularly reflective about it at the moment. Alkali metals, running up stairwells for shits and giggles, weird bikes, random explosions, a helpful alarm clock every morning from the construction outside my window…

So what’s the plan for summer? Now that I’m IRL, it’s time to stop blowing off summers and actually do things. I’m going to continue my research & development position with the Media Lab, and hopefully by the end of summer we will have the Citycar prototype running. Other than that, building random things will continue as normal. Once I get the ESC replaced on Snuffles Reloaded, then I’ll continue my own R&D work on that. I’m seriously contemplating the creation of a conversion kit if the idea is viable. Other things might come as the sumemr rolls on. Whatever the case, I should be plenty busy.

The summer bot fleet will be Ãœberclocker and Pop Quiz 2, both for local events and Dragon Con 2008 & Robot Battles. Going to DC08 raised a bit of controversy within my circle of peers because the same week is freshman rush and orientation week, which is a big thing to get involved in here. But hey, maybe next time.

Bot-mode on.

Even more steel falls into my collection today as the end of term hits many people, especially seniors, who are ditching stuff to move house. I predict alot more fun stuff to come, so stay tuned.

First up in today’s lineup is this grand collection of enormous über-steel death-mills.

Now the little lonesome shell mill at MITERS has a bunch of buddies. Unfortunately, we have no tool holders for the Bridgeport that can even begin to swing one of these things. The shanks are all 1.25 to 1.5″ in diameter. Each mill is HSS according to their stamped labels. Some are chipped and require resharpening. Some are just weird – like that little stubby thing under the massive mill at the top. A few have six flutes.

These are all capable of serious damage if wielded properly (or improperly). I like this.

This set will go to MITERS, in the event we figure out something to do with them.

Next is…

I don’t get it. Regardless, I liked the 2 foot long slab of solid 1″ thick aluminum that formed the deck, along with the identical 2 foot long slab of 1″ thick aluminum next to it. These will be for the bots… whichever bot I will build that requires a solid slab of 1″ thick aluminum or two?

Stay tuned for the next episode!