[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

Yeah, 100 did last season, and I just loved them. Basically, take anything that slides (on slots, as a bearing block, a VersaBlock, etc) that needs to be tensioned and put a cam next to it. Your bearing block/whatever will never slip, and the cams are real easy to design in and use.

I think of the tensioner vs c-c debate like this. If you want to put a chain/belt between two points in something that is getting milled (like a plate or piece of tubing) and you don't care a ton about slack in the system, go with exact c-c spacing, as it'll make your life a ton easier. If you're going between two points where it's difficult to get good tolerances (like from the bottom of the robot to the top of a big welded superstructure to drive an arm) or where it's critical you dial in the tension so it can handle lots of torque, go with sliding tensioners. It'll be much easier to dial in the exact tension you want, and you can soak up the tolerance stack up through the slidithis thread to figure tensioner system.

You don't need to go exact c-c and have a bunch of slack though. Use the information provided in this thread to figure out the correct distances for a tensioned chain.