Star intake rollers

[T^2]

Originally Posted by marccenter

Hex Star Intake Design Concept,

Since I have access to a water jet, here's a concept I developed. Use water jet to cut out alum hex star (0.125 to 0.25 inch) thick. Use on both ends of 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 inch long star. Attach 6 thin plates (0.5 inch wide by 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0 long) with attached wedgetop, roughtop, or silicone material. Rivet star material to thin plate. Attach thin plates to hex star by super glue? Thoughts? Apologies in advance for using powerpoint as my source drawing tool.

Seems like a lot of work for very little benefit... if you have access to a water jet, you might as well just cut out entire stars out of some rubbery material.

Side note: I wouldn't at all trust superglue to hold aluminum plates together under repeated impact. VHB tape would probably serve you a lot better.

[Bob Steele]

Originally Posted by T^2

Seems like a lot of work for very little benefit... if you have access to a water jet, you might as well just cut out entire stars out of some rubbery material.

Side note: I wouldn't at all trust superglue to hold aluminum plates together under repeated impact. VHB tape would probably serve you a lot better.

I agree. Super glue does not work well with any flexing. I would use a mechanical fastener. But cutting the whole thing out of silicone rubber would allow for flexing of fingers. The design would need to consider what you are trying to move with the fingers. How much do you need them to flex??

Our redesign of the AM stars was intended to make the fingers stronger for our intake. This was for the flat frisbees. We experimented with several heights and positions until we found one that worked.

If you were using these with something that moved easier (balls) you could get away with more flexible fingers. The frisbees did not want to slide very well and caught on the thin plate we used in the front of the collector. We ended up using a thin polycarbonate sheet in front of the aluminum plate and that worked well for pick up

[marccenter]

Wow,
I just priced some 1/2 inch silicone rubber sheets 1 foot square and was shocked at the price ($50/ pc). The idea of cutting this material out using a water jet may be cost prohibitive. Does anyone have experience with water jet cutting the interlocking floor tiles (7/8 inch thick), 2 foot square, used as the VEX field or commonly found at Home Depot, Lowes, for kid playing fields? If this material worked, it may make sense to proceed down the water jet cutting path of the floor tile material directly.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by marccenter

Wow,
I just priced some 1/2 inch silicone rubber sheets 1 foot square and was shocked at the price ($50/ pc). The idea of cutting this material out using a water jet may be cost prohibitive. Does anyone have experience with water jet cutting the interlocking floor tiles (7/8 inch thick), 2 foot square, used as the VEX field or commonly found at Home Depot, Lowes, for kid playing fields? If this material worked, it may make sense to proceed down the water jet cutting path of the floor tile material directly.

Mcmaster pricing on a foot square is not the best way to price this. You'd want to get a larger sheet, from someone who sells rubber.

Cutting the starts from a 1' piece would nest poorly as well, wasting a lot more material than necessary.