F.R.E.D. is here! He’s kicking it in the garage right now waiting on the arrival of the Phoenix 7.5HP Phase Converter!
Around 4AM this morning a friend and I energized FRED’s breaking system allowing us to physically move him from the position he originally arrived in!
Here’s a few pictures of the new location! F.R.E.D. | Facebook
I’ve never shipped 1,700 pounds of anything before. I doubt if you added up everything I’ve ever shipped [fancyamp] received it would even come close to that number! Sticker shock would be the name of the game… It looks like I’ll be living off day-old bread for a while.
[info_box]Be aware when shipping giant robots that it’s stupid expensive.[/info_box]
Setting up a freight shipment is a pretty complex task. You neet to put together a Bill of Lading complete with NMFC item numbers, Class Codes, dimensions. After a few weeks of the bugging, I got all the dimension details from the sellers out in CT! Woo! Now I just need to figure out what the heck those other two things are. After a few confusing calls to YRC, I finally opened up a chat window with their online help, and it was all done in the span of a few minutes! Three Hazaaaz for the intertubewebnets! A few days later they dropped it off at Yellow Roadway YRC!
Shipment Stage 1:[list_tick]
My old neighbor and possible criminal syndicate kingpin, Don, has the garage of a god. I once wandered over in the hopes that he might have a tap set. He had 3. He was always ready to help me with my numerous projects growing up, and now I need yet another favor. YRC needed a loading dock and a forklift operator standing by ready to unload the robot when it arrived. That is not something I can get a hold of on a few days notice, but Don can. He made a few calls so everyone knows not to refuse the giant orange robot, and broken refrigerator lookin’ thing. A slightly bizarre delivery for an industrial plumbing company. Thank you so much to everyone at Wray P&H!! They’ve been incredible in setting all this up!
So after a super creepy trip to Harbor Freight to grab a new tarp, I’m ready for the robot!!
For years I’ve had a poorly written perl script scanning the intertube-webnets for an old ABB IRB 2000 robotic arm. Why?! I have no idea but it probably has something to do with high school. In 2004/2005 KODAK shut down its xray film production plant in Greely Colorado and donated an ABB IRB 2000 arm to Poudre High School. Mr. Smith, the shop teacher, robotics coach, and all around wonderful person, set it up in the shop/FIRST Team 159 robotics studio. Once or twice, with little convincing, Smith let me pilot this beast. Once the FIRST Robotics build season had started however, piloting the robot was simply out of the question; bigger fish to fry and what have you. I respectfully disagreed, how is a robot not robotics? The beast was held in limbo by two combination locks which smith possessed the only key for. He said I was free to use it, but didn’t give me a key… Did you know you can crack a combination lock mathematically? I learned how, sprawled some numbers across the chalkboard, and opened the pair. It’s amazing what you can do when you’re properly motivated. Smith abruptly changed them out with two more and suggested I do something more productive. Heartbroken, I went back to working on the FIRSTrobot and somewhere deep in my subconscious, some wires got crossed, and now I own a giant robot… as of 11/11/11 so… there’s that. It’s all a bit surreal, and now I have to figure out shipping. How to you ship 700 pounds of robot and 500 pounds of robot brains? Where am I going to put it? What kind of robot food does it eat?! All questions a logical person would have asked first, but I’m running low on that… ground state even. Life in the clouds is more fun anyway, and it’ll all work out… I hope…
