A Simple Elevator

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

How was the durability of the pads on this? Did you notice that the tower was swaying when all the way up high?

The ecoslide pads are beastly, and hold together very, very well -- I had forgotten that we didn't even use the carriages on Shiela, just the pads (screwed into the second stage of the lift, inserted into the first stage, which was the Bosch stuff). The elevator we made consisted of two rails spaced almost to the sides of the robot, stiffened with a few small crossbeams made of 1/2" L aluminum. It didn't sway.

http://www.team1551.org/Sheila2_400x600.jpg

Our robot lift in Breakaway used the ecoslide carriage and lifted our whole robot no problem over and over again -- it didn't sway because it had little weight up top: it was just used to lift a hook, and then drew down to lift the whole robot.

[nnfuller]

Thank you everyone for their input. Our team used 80/20 sliders for our minibot deployment in 2011, and we swore them off after that. So I have tried to mock up a lift I think we could build image below:

Specs:

• Two stage Lift with the primary towers built out of 1x2 1/16 wall Aluminum
• Second stage uses 1x2 1/8th wall C stock
• First stage uses bearings in bearing blocks designed to be shimmed out in order to get a precise fit to control front to back motion and the side to side motion is controlled by Delrin slides riveted to the top of the towers and bottom of the first stage.
• The second Stage slides are milled Delrin inserts. These can be milled and sanded until they slides cleanly in a test piece of C channel.
• All of the gusset plates are .050 Aluminum sheet with 3/16 Rivets
• Top black brace is made of 1/4in plywood.
• Since this is a mock up the tower is not adequately braced, but for now im interested in critique of overall design.

[Adam.garcia]

Originally Posted by nnfuller

Thank you everyone for their input. Our team used 80/20 sliders for our minibot deployment in 2011, and we swore them off after that. So I have tried to mock up a lift I think we could build image below:

Specs:

• Two stage Lift with the primary towers built out of 1x2 1/16 wall Aluminum
• Second stage uses 1x2 1/8th wall C stock
• First stage uses bearings in bearing blocks designed to be shimmed out in order to get a precise fit to control front to back motion and the side to side motion is controlled by Delrin slides riveted to the top of the towers and bottom of the first stage.
• The second Stage slides are milled Delrin inserts. These can be milled and sanded until they slides cleanly in a test piece of C channel.
• All of the gusset plates are .050 Aluminum sheet with 3/16 Rivets
• Top black brace is made of 1/4in plywood.
• Since this is a mock up the tower is not adequately braced, but for now im interested in critique of overall design.

I am still learning the design of the elevator system myself, but I think you need, built onto the top of that second stage, a mount for a pulley which will route the steel cable (or other means of wire) throughout your assembly. Also, that black plate in the back is going to be secured to the cable, so make sure that it is adequately strong, as it is going to be taking a lot of force.

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by Adam.garcia

I am still learning the design of the elevator system myself, but I think you need, built onto the top of that second stage, a mount for a pulley which will route the steel cable (or other means of wire) throughout your assembly. Also, that black plate in the back is going to be secured to the cable, so make sure that it is adequately strong, as it is going to be taking a lot of force.

There's multiple ways to rig an elevator. Pulley and cable is only one. If you do cascaded rigging you can actually run wire rope, chain, belt, or a rack and pinion. Look at the discussion here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=110011

[Adam.garcia]

Slightly skewing off the main conversation here, but I have another question pertaining to building a minimalist and robust elevator system:

I know the elevator is not taking a lot of horizontal load, but how do you ensure that there is enough support to prevent the elevator from leaning forward/backward? I see that Adam Heard of 973 has what looks like a minimal amount of support on Emporer Swerve, and I was wondering how our team should go about determining how much support is needed.

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by Adam.garcia

Slightly skewing off the main conversation here, but I have another question pertaining to building a minimalist and robust elevator system:

I know the elevator is not taking a lot of horizontal load, but how do you ensure that there is enough support to prevent the elevator from leaning forward/backward? I see that Adam Heard of 973 has what looks like a minimal amount of support on Emporer Swerve, and I was wondering how our team should go about determining how much support is needed.

The actual elevator frame needs to be just as rigid as a regular frame. Nothing special there. Putting bearing blocks on the top of the frame and the bottom of the 2nd stage adequately prevents the elevator from swaying.

[Adam.garcia]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

The actual elevator frame needs to be just as rigid as a regular frame. Nothing special there. Putting bearing blocks on the top of the frame and the bottom of the 2nd stage adequately prevents the elevator from swaying.

How about the connection between the complete elevator assembly and the drive train. As seen in 254's 2011 design, the elevator system was nicely supported with gussets that served as their minibot deployment system. But, looking at 973's Emporer Swerve, they have very small plates keeping the elevator upright.

Do you have any advice on how much support is necessary on this connection?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Adam.garcia

How about the connection between the complete elevator assembly and the drive train. As seen in 254's 2011 design, the elevator system was nicely supported with gussets that served as their minibot deployment system. But, looking at 973's Emporer Swerve, they have very small plates keeping the elevator upright.

Do you have any advice on how much support is necessary on this connection?

You can see we actually had quite substantial support in the form of turnbuckles.

This must not be in the .step we posted?

It's hard to quantity exactly what framing needs to be there, which is the same for most FRC frames. A decent, solid triangle is usually never a bad choice though.

[pfreivald]

1/16" steel cable is extremely light, really annoying to work with, and excellent at stabilizing elevators.