Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
It makes it easier to tighten the screws that hold the gearbox together. If you're going to do it this way, you have to be able to keep the plates together, and with the gear/motor setup, I don't think you can just assemble the box and put in the motor afterwards; you have to put the motor on the plate first. I'm not sure you can remove much sideplate length without reducing the ability to remove the screws in a hurry (say, in case of complete failure of a sideplate, requiring a complete teardown).
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Complete failure of a side plate? I don't think I've ever seen that happen in FRC.
Also, those look like 1/4-20 screws to hold everything together. If the point of this design is to save weight, those are way overkill. Use tapped standoffs and #8 or #10 hardware, and you'll save a lot of weight. All #10/32 bolts are only approximately 58% of the weight of the same length 1/4-20 bolt.
Another possibility, depending on how the gearbox is mounted, is to use the #10/32 CIM mounting screws with four #10 clearance standoffs to hold the gearbox together. CIMs are pretty reliable motors, and generally don't ever need to be replaced if you do your homework. I wouldn't suggest this strategy for Fisher Price, Globe, or Banebot motors as they are more prone to smoke, but CIMs will take a lot before they give up the ghost.
As Steve pointed out, there's no reason to have both plates so big, unless they are specifically designed to mount in a certain way. The smaller and more compact something is, in general the less it weighs, due to the need for less material.