View Single Post
  #4   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 12-05-2016, 08:06
BoilerMentor BoilerMentor is offline
Registered User
FRC #1747
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Rookie Year: 2006
Location: West Lafayette, IN
Posts: 132
BoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond reputeBoilerMentor has a reputation beyond repute
Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?

Quote:
Originally Posted by s_forbes View Post
The COTs parts available through Vexpro, AndyMark, and McMaster made all of our design work very easy. I'm glad we have so many parts available now compared to years ago!

One part we end up making a lot of, and isn't easy to do if you are a low resource team with no mill/lathe, is spacer inserts for tubes. These let you do through-bolt connections that can be tightened without crushing the tube, so you actually have a strong bolted joint. For VexPro in particular, spacers like this that fit their Versaframe extrusion sizes could be very useful for some teams.

In years past where crushing box was an issue, we would rip down a piece of scrap hardwood on a table saw to fit snugly within a tube and just use that. Does exactly what you're after and would be way easier to position and use than a round spacer. I can see positioning one of those little round spacers and lining it up with the bolt holes being a royal pain, especially if it's deep in a tube that's already attached to the robot.
__________________
2006-2008 FIRST Team 1741 Red Alert-Founding Student
2008-2011 FIRST Team 1747 Harrison Boiler Robotics-College Mentor
2012 FIRST Team 4272 Maverick Boiler Robotics-Founding College Mentor
2013-Present FIRST Team 1747 Harrison Boiler Robotics-Engineering Mentor
2015-Present Ri3D Team Indiana - Mechanical and Fabrication
Reply With Quote