[MarkoRamius1086]

I never thought I would ever see this Black Project hit the web!

There is a fair amount of millwork and lathework involved to make this piece of artwork function properly. It is not a perfect design, if the students decide to pursue it for a competition robot they will have to make a couple small changes (lessons learned is where experience comes from). The really neat thing about this design is how compact the students were able to package the drivetrain portion of it. The wheel and the horizontal bevel gear have only ~1/16" of clearance, and you can't even hardly see the clearance between the vertical bevel gear and the chain/sprocket. I would hope they had planned it that way instead of winging it.

@Gdeaver, one question at a time. The set screw system was already machined into the bevel gears we ordered... a snap ring would not fit I believe. You would have to ask the actual designer to verify that.

Honestly, the side load thing is an issue, but I was going to wait for something to blow and let them figure it out. Most of them don't read Chief Delphi on a regular basis anyways so I should be safe! There are normal ball bearings under the washers, but the flanges are on the inside of the assembled housing. I am sure for a final the housing will have more support lower to prevent the force of an impact from creating a moment that would deform the housing to, yes, a parallelogram. That and a support shaft on the inside to prevent the inner race of the ball bearing from taking the brunt of a load that you would expect from Worlds or IRI.

I really am proud of the kids for cooking this prototype up and can't wait to see what the next revision (hopefully an untested REV2 isn't on the final robot...) will turn out like!

Regards,
Petrie