VEXPro - After the season

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

... We have bought boraches for 3/8" and 1/2" hex, so we can hex anything we want.

^This.

For the first time in years with FRC teams (starting 1996), a team I am part of built a robot using NO KEYS at all. Everything is 3/8" or 1/2" hex. (Well, the CIM pinions are still keyed.)

I also really like the 1/2 tube shaft. It makes quick-change dead axle wheel set-up very easy. Our wheels this year are AM 4" performance with 32T #25 sprockets. We cut-and-faced our axles 2.5" long, then set up the sprocket axial alignment using ABS spacers parted to the correct length on one side of each wheel, with a shaft collar on the other side. A 1/4" bolt through the middle holds the wheel-sprocket-axle assembly in place between our slotted frame rails, and a simple two-hole tensioner adjusts the C-C distance to suit the chain length. Wheel changes are really fast and can be done without removing bumpers. It's the little details that excite me.