[techtiger1]

Madison I respect your posts here on CD and I see your doing your best to try and make this work for your team. I don't think that using plastic as a key is such a great idea. This is coming from my background in machining and dealing with different types of plastic. I don't profess to be an engineer but my team has been machining plastic and using it for wheels,turrets and bushings for quite a long time. I have seen this set up and it just seems to me that in a application with the cim motor like you have shown the plastic keys just won't hold up through the whole season. I am only a first year engineering student but whenever there is metal on plastic, plastic usually loses no matter how strong it is after a certain period of time. I think your best bet would be to find someone who can make that size keyway which I believe is 2mm if your talking about the cim. Either that or make the Keyseat on the cim bigger and adjust the plate accordingly. Just a few ideas and I think aluminum would definitely be the way to go as far as the key. I like the idea it just doesn't seem efficient manufacturing wise and from what I read and I reread the post 3 times, that it just won't be durable enough. I do like an idea of a keyway in the top hat instead of a press fit, good thinking.

Just some input and ideas like you asked for,
Drew D.