custom wheels

[1683cadder]

I noticed that a lot of teams are using custom wheels this year. Is there any advantages? What about costs? And what is needed when designing a wheel?

[ehochstein]

We almost made our own wheels this year, unfortunately we had to return our 3D printer before we could finish them. Some advantages would be that you can make the wheels any size you would like as long as they remain within the constraints of the 3D printer. You can also change the structure of the wheel potentially saving weight.

When designing a wheel you would need a CAD software compatible with your 3D printer as well as some tread to attach to the wheel once they have finished printing. If I have some time later tonight I will upload an image of our CADed wheels.

Cost wise, you have a pretty large start-up fee. A 3D printer can cost you more then an entire team's budget for one year.

[MichaelBick]

Custom wheels are usually made in two ways: 3D printing or CNC machining. The 3D printing method tends to be the easier method. I've heard they can be really strong if made right, so you probably want to experiment before the season if you chose this method. From what I've heard, CNC'd wheels tends to be resource consuming, but you come out with a strong, light wheel.

[sdcantrell56]

COLSONS FTW!

[Travis Hoffman]

Find a sponsor with a CNC mill (thanks GEMS!).

Shamelessly borrow AM's 6" performance wheel CAD design (the old one without the big hole in it for the zip-tied tread) minus a few features.

Buy 5.75" aluminum wheel blanks for about $9.50 each.

Turn your sponsor loose.

Finish up the tread grooves and rivet holes yourself.

Save lots of money.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Find a sponsor with a CNC mill (thanks GEMS!).

Shamelessly borrow AM's 6" performance wheel CAD design (the old one without the big hole in it for the zip-tied tread) minus a few features.

Buy 5.75" aluminum wheel blanks for about $9.50 each.

Turn your sponsor loose.

Finish up the tread grooves and rivet holes yourself.

Save lots of money.

This is really inefficient.

Sure, you save money, but at the expense of sponsor's time.

I'm sure that sponsors time could be better spent on other robot parts.

We run COTS wheels now, after machining aluminum solid wheels for years.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

This is really inefficient.

Sure, you save money, but at the expense of sponsor's time.

I'm sure that sponsors time could be better spent on other robot parts.

We run COTS wheels now, after machining aluminum solid wheels for years.

I'm sure you know nothing about our program or our sponsor.

I'm sure they are happy to save us money doing a part they can setup once and make repeatedly and relatively quickly, giving them more time to handle their very busy workload on all that fun stuff that *actually makes them money*.

I'm sure they are also happy that they saved 3193 money as well making the same wheels.

I'm sure we had another local CNC sponsor who is more flexible in making a variety of parts for us.

I'm sure COTS wheels weren't something we wanted to use on the competition robot this year.

[Chinmay]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

I'm sure you know nothing about our program or our sponsor.

I'm sure they are happy to save us money doing a part they can setup once and make repeatedly and relatively quickly, giving them more time to handle their very busy workload on all that fun stuff that *actually makes them money*.

I'm sure they are also happy that they saved 3193 money as well making the same wheels.

I'm sure we had another local CNC sponsor who is more flexible in making a variety of parts for us.

I'm sure COTS wheels weren't something we wanted to use on the competition robot this year.

I'm sure you know exactly how to save your sponsors time and money and maybe I'll get to hear that someday....


Regardless, I agree with Adam that making your own wheels can be a resource hog for a lot of teams. Sometimes, it is feasible for a team to machine their own wheels, but even if I had the time/materials, I'd still think twice about doing it unless theres a significant advantage.

Some significant advantages can include the method of tred attachment, the way you attache sprockets for chain/belt, the exact diameter of the wheel and the width of the wheel. I dont think weight savings would be too big a motivation for making custom wheels. It really just depends on your teams resources. There are a lot of good wheels that are cots parts so i wouldn't worry too much about custom ones.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Chinmay

I'm sure you know exactly how to save your sponsors time and money and maybe I'll get to hear that someday....


Regardless, I agree with Adam that making your own wheels can be a resource hog for a lot of teams. Sometimes, it is feasible for a team to machine their own wheels, but even if I had the time/materials, I'd still think twice about doing it unless theres a significant advantage.

Some significant advantages can include the method of tred attachment, the way you attache sprockets for chain/belt, the exact diameter of the wheel and the width of the wheel. I dont think weight savings would be too big a motivation for making custom wheels. It really just depends on your teams resources. There are a lot of good wheels that are cots parts so i wouldn't worry too much about custom ones.

Saving money is a significant advantage in my books.

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Saving money is a significant advantage in my books.

Versa traction wheels are cheap.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

Versa traction wheels are cheap.

Read Travis' list again.

A lot of people in this thread are assuming that what works for their team works for every team.

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Read Travis' list again.

A lot of people in this thread are assuming that what works for their team works for every team.

I realize what works for one team doesn't work for every team. That said, for the majority of teams the time to make custom wheels is not worth it(as Chinmay perfectly stated).

Your point was that custom wheels have a significant advantage price wise. I was just pointing out that there are COTS wheels that are just as cheap.

[Chinmay]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Read Travis' list again.

A lot of people in this thread are assuming that what works for their team works for every team.

He has legitimate reasons for machining his own wheels. Power to him. I'd hardly call it a "list"


I'm trying to provide a set of reasons why teams may want to machine wheels. I don't think cost for the teams I've worked with would be a good reason because its nearly impossible to save cost on custom wheels.

Edit: Also I don't think I mention saving money as not a legitimate reason...

[cadandcookies]

If anything, what I'm seeing here is that, like everything on your robot, the efficiency and "worthwhileness" of custom wheels is something that is completely relative to your team. If you have all kinds of machining sponsors or a 3D printer, it might be worth it for your team. If you don't, not a big deal. It's how you want to allocate your resources (like anything in FIRST).

On another note, one of the benefits can be an integrated pulley, such as 3928 had on this year's robot. I can't tell you how nice that looked for a team that was struggling to use belts for the first time on our drive train this year.

[jar24]

we build our own omni and mecanum wheels, we have CNC's, we find that they are a lot stronger and are lighter also. plus it is nice being able to tell a judge that you created your wheels