Looking for roller brush
 

A local rookie team emailed me:

"We are looking for a cylindrical brush something that is about 18” long with a 4” – 6” diameter. Any Ideas?"

All I can think of is a paint roller, but that would be too small. Anyone have an idea where such a brush may exist? They did not mention what material or why the they need such a roller brush.

Thanks.

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

http://www.mcmaster.com/
search for "conveyor brushes and/or "round brushes"

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

I know in '06 at least one team used hair brushes 4 end to end

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

for this years game, we are thinking about running surgical tubing around pvc to collect moon rocks

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

Ya, team 694 used hairbrushes to acquire from the ground in 2006. They were about 3" dia. and they worked very well. I'll try to find a good pic to post.

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

Good picture in FIRST Robots:Behind the Design from 06 season

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

Specifically look at catalog page 1226 on the lower half of the page. These are a little expensive and I doubt they would effectively pick up the game piece (the bristles are dense and meant for cleaning rather than picking up game pieces), but they are here.

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

Thanks for all the quick replies. I passed the info on and I'm sure they will register and use Chief Delphi!

The Mcmaster's brushes seem expensive. The hair brush idea is brilliant. That's the one I would make.

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

We also found a neat garage door seal at Ace hardware that might work, if a few of them were attached to a pipe (such as ABS black sewer pipe) so they could act as flaps to move the balls.

And the tan gum type roughtop tread seems to be really grippy on the Orbit balls.

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

We're strongly considering this option. It makes a lot of sense.

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

How about a roller brush from a vacuum cleaner?

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

Exactly what we are considering also.
You might want to look at Hoover as well.

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

The roller brushes from commercial vacuum cleaners don't match the size constraints listed above. The instant this competition came out I took apart an old upright vacuum (for a different purpose)--The component shown above is no more than 1" diameter with 1/2" bristles. An in most vacuums it will be closer to 10" rather than 18" long. I think a teams best bet is to make their own brush using hair brushes or commercial bristles on a piece of pipe.

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

Vacuum cleaner brushes don't seem like they'll be large enough to be much more than a standard roller when interacting with the balls.

I would suggest investigating how you can use other bristled objects if teams consider this type of design for their robots. I know we're planning to sweep up the competition with our idea ;)

Re: Looking for roller brush
 

Check out chimney sweeping brushes at menards... they come with plastic bristles and are 6" - 8" diameter with a height of about 10"...

Also, they have a shaft on them that you can attach a motor or gear to...