How to mount colson wheels in a live axle setup
 

I'm looking into using Colson wheels next year (4"x2" or 5"x2"), but I don't know how to attach them to a live axle. I've looked around, and have seen many pictures and explanations, but it's still kinda confusing to me.

Can anyone tell me how to do this? Pictures would be great, if there are any.

Thanks!

Re: How to mount colson wheels in a live axle setup
 

Right now there are talks of offering this in a live axle setup.

http://wcproducts.net/wcp-00052/


Stay tuned in the coming months.

Re: How to mount colson wheels in a live axle setup
 

THANK YOU! I saw that, but was disappointed it was dead axle. To those at WCP, PLEASE make this! You'll get a minimum of one (two, one for the practice bot) order for sure, and many, many more!

Man. WCP makes the gears for our new gearbox, AND possibly the hubs for our wheels! Greatest company ever! (No offense Andymark. We still love you!)

Re: How to mount colson wheels in a live axle setup
 

Colson wheels are incredibly easy to work with in a live axle setup if you have access to a lathe, arbor press, and broach.

If you're looking to work with either the 1.5" or 2" wide Colson wheels, these have a 1-3/16" (1.1875") bore in the center. To convert this into a live axle setup, take aluminum round stock and turn it down on the lathe to an OD (outer diameter) of 1.200" +0.005"/-0.002". This is already a tight interference fit into the Colson hub, but some teams (such as 228) knurl the OD of the aluminum plug to provide extra holding force.

Generally the plug only has to be about half the thickness of the wheel, so a 0.8" to 1.0" long plug is all you need (Additionally, broaching anything thicker than 1.0" is usually quite difficult). Then you just use the arbor press to press the hub into the wheel. This step should take quite a bit of force, and may require a cheater bar and/or someone standing on the other side of the arbor press if its 3 Ton or smaller.

As long as you have a proper interference fit, you should never shear the pressed in plug out of the Colson wheel on a FRC robot.

If you'd like to have a CAD model of this approach, search for teams who have used Colson wheels before on CD-Media or FRC Designs.

Re: How to mount colson wheels in a live axle setup
 

Will do! Thanks!