Quote:
Originally Posted by billbo911
I have a simple question about the construction of a "WCD" system. Having no experience with these, yet, we want to learn from other's experience to help minimize the normal error associated with trying something new.
I see mention of using "bearing blocks" quite often when building WCD's. It is necessary? Couldn't the bearing's be pressed directly onto the walls of the tubes?
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Team 48 has done this the past two years with no issues. Instead of including movable bearing blocks to tension the chain you have to design in additional tensioner. We have just used 1" round Delrin(Acetyl Resin) with a hole drilled off center with great success, turn the cam against the chain and then tighten down a bolt to hold the cam in place.
Here are the CAD files for our 2011 robot. The bearings are pressed into the frame members as discussed, but the delrin chain tensioners aren't included. They are more of a install as needed device. You may also want to find the equations to calculate chain lengths based on an even number of links, this should lessen the need for tenioning and half links.