Tips for a grant proposal?

Good day,

I have an 8th grade course called Mod Tech. I am writing a grant to try to get a Handibot. I have a few questions though as I try to get the grant out the door in a format that it gets approved and I can make a purchase.

Can designs be created using chromebooks? Tinkercad is what I have fiddled with most, but I am pretty knowledgeable in sketchup. (we just rolled out 1:1 chromebooks, so that is the current buzz word.

We create these dragsters... if we designed one for cutting with the Handibot, what would be an estimate of cutting time using pine stock?

Lastly, what would be a price for a Handibot, a few years supply of bits, and shipping?

Thanks for your time.

Mike

Mike,
I know nothing about writing grants so I will have to differ on that but let me touch on designing for the handibot.

At this time you are going to have to have some windows PCs to design on as the handibot comes with Vcarve Pro and Fusion 360. Vcarve only runs under windows and F360 will run under windows or Mac OS. There is at least one 3d modeling package that runs in a browser window but anything designed in it would have to be handed off to Vcarve for tool pathing.

Mike,

Agreed on everything that Mark wrote--
A little more info on CAD/CAM...Design work can be done in any software that you're comfortable with. For my designs I use a software called GeoMagic, which is a much less expensive version of SolidWorks. When I'm done with my design, I export either 2D drawings or 3D stl files. However--at some point you will need to create toolpaths to cut out these models. The combination of Fusion and vCarve should be able to serve your needs--but vCarve is exclusively a windows program--you could let your students do their design work on chromebooks and have a couple of stations for vCarve that they move to once they've finished their designs...toolpathing is the faster part of the CAD/CAM process so that might work just fine.

Looking at the design in the videos, I would allow at least an hour per car. Flat shapes are very quick and simple to cut, just a few minutes...but complex 3D shapes require the use of a ball nose bit that makes a number of passes to sculpt the shape. I'm assuming that your students come up with all kinds of cool swoopy designs for their cars that would need to be carve in full 3D--which would likely require an hour each.

The handibot costs 2895--shipping averages around $60--and I would recommend a handful of ball nose bits that you might spend $500 on over the next couple of years. You're also fine using the less expensive bits available at the hardware store if you're just cutting soft pine.

Brian

To get an idea of what the 3D carving process is like, you can take a look at this video: [www.youtube.com]