Quote:
Originally Posted by snorthey
some real world advice...
use the chain that is easiest available... look to industry around you for parts...
35 is easy to find parts and links in hardware stores...
look to old farm machines for great examples of ho to convvert speed to force and back again.. look at specs for a square baler or corn picker... both are driven off 1 or at most 2 power sources (the PTO)& (second can be the wheel)
all the moving parts are driven from that one source...
BEWARE of Fingers...
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This can either be good advice or really bad advice, depending mostly on where you live. I can't speak to the availability of corn picker parts in MN or San Francisco, but I know that if you wanted to find a specific sprocket from a corn picker near Philadelphia you'd be SOL. That means that if you do find one and it breaks, it will probably take a while to get an exact replacement. If it breaks at a competition, there probably won't be any other teams there that have a spare one to lend you. And if you have to modify it in any way so it interfaces properly with FRC parts it's no longer COST so any extras would count towards your withholding.
What I would recommend is to use parts from a standard FRC supplier (
VexPro has a huge supply of sprockets and chain to choose from), even if sometimes they may be slightly more expensive. With FRC suppliers you know the quality of the product, they have amazing customer service and fast shipping, and the parts are standard so it greatly increases the likelihood of bring able to find a replacement when you badly need one. This isn't to say that industry parts won't work (god knows I've stuck a few of them on robots in the past) just that in most cases there are better options.