Team Duct Tape members got down to some serious design work last weekend, and with a combination of rudimentary CAD and white board sketches, got a drive train solution and some other ideas under way.  They also got in a great visit to the Jamie Cunningham’s Backyard Workshop – exactly what it sounds like, but in the front yard!

Team members enjoyed seeing Mr. Cunningham’s great homemade 3D printer, learning about aluminum sand casting (awesome!) , and seeing his (also homemade!) CNC machine in action, cutting out a big foam letter “T” for Learning is for Everyone‘s upcoming TEDxYouth@TampaBay event.  Mr. Cunningham’s resourcefulness and creative approaches to engineering problem solving were both fun and inspiring!

Team members also got in some Robot C tutoring with mentor and TDT grad, Chris Willingham.

It was a pretty full meeting, and there’s another one coming up tomorrow, with our build finally underway, and our ring order finally in, so we can properly test prototypes.

TDT 5.0 may be mostly new to FIRST Tech Challenge, but they’re proving completely up to the challenge of a quality robot build, in the finest Team Duct Tape tradition!