[Madison]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Thanks for the input.

The lower link has been replaced with an aluminum unit, which has made the arm substantially more rigid as it travels up and down. The swaying left to right has been taken care of by adding more support to tie the top of the arm super structure in with the base. We've also added a guide of sorts that the arm falls into while in the down position which limits the sway of the claw to approximately a half inch.

As far as the arm being raised outside of the safe zone, it's not really something we're worried about - yet. When at it's lowest point and at the top scoring point the arm is contained completely within the frame and bumper perimeter - and the arm can be raised from it's lowest point to it's highest point while remaining completely in the safe zone. More often than not, if we're approaching the scoring grid unobstructed then we will raise our arm a bit early, but if someone is waiting to play defense on us then we will wait until we're in the safe zone to raise it.

What was the lower link previously? PVC?

Our machine shows a lot of the same characteristics that yours does and it seems like we've taken a lot of the same steps to mitigate the problems. I've been considering replacing the lower link with aluminum or fiberglass, but we see a lot of elastic deformation in that member and I'm worried that the replacement will plasticly deform instead of stiffen things up.