[Gary Dillard]

Gotta caution you though - I tried to use the part you have pictured in zone zeal as the pivot for our 2 arms (you'll see them in early pictures of Fluffy but not in the version that made it to nationals). We had flat run out of manufacturing resources and time to make the original bearing and support, so I did a quick redesign to use these off the shelf parts from McMaster Carr. They may take 300 pounds of load, but they have no stiffness or strength in off-axis torque. They actually performed better than I expected - the formed sheet metal managed to stay just close enough to keep the ball bearings from departing - but the lack of stiffness caused problems in the drive system (couldn't keep tension).

My favorite activity during week 1 is to go to home depot and stare at stuff for ideas, and to see what I could cluge together for a mechanism. Parts that already have integral hinges or bearings can save you a bunch of time and money. At worst you get a quick prototype; at best you get a functioning component.