We have a little problem with our robot: since we have a gap in the frame, we added a support beneath the robot, connected to buth inner and outer c-channels on both sides (we have a kitbot drive). Up to this point everything is pretty with unicorns and sunshines.
The problem is it's now passing between two wheels connected by a chain. The chain is a bit loose and brushes against the support. We don't have enough room for an AM tensioner (
http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-0286.htm), and we couldn't find anything small enough to fit yet strong enough not to break.
I thought of wrapping a bunch of zipties on the support, parallel to the chain's movement direction and have it run on them.
Questions are two:
- Will it work? (Sub questions: how well? Will the zipties give? Will it preserve more energy than letting it run on the support? What would harm the chain more? etc.)
- Got any better ideas? We would very much appreciate some.
The chains are #35 series and the support is an aluminium square profile.
BTW, feel free to discuss a theoretical, unrelated secnario of chains running on zipties
