Shooter opposite wall

[Chris is me]

We just used lexan strips to shim our shooter until we got the right compression. We weren't going for max distance or anything though, we just wanted the disc to end up in the goal.

This is definitely a part of the shooter that you can settle for "good enough" in instead of "perfect".

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

We just used lexan strips to shim our shooter until we got the right compression. We weren't going for max distance or anything though, we just wanted the disc to end up in the goal.

This is definitely a part of the shooter that you can settle for "good enough" in instead of "perfect".

For running cycles at the pyramid, you are probably right - this is something you can probably just get close enough and call it good. For trying to shoot full-field with high accuracy, these are the kinds of little things that make a difference between a 3' shot distribution pattern and a 1' pattern. Those kinds of marginal improvements are what separate the top shooters from the next tier.

Of course, this brings up an important point - always make sure you are designing to your own design's requirements. Doing the little things right can make a big difference if your design relies on great precision. If you don't need that level of precision, you probably can spend your effort elsewhere.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

For running cycles at the pyramid, you are probably right - this is something you can probably just get close enough and call it good. For trying to shoot full-field with high accuracy, these are the kinds of little things that make a difference between a 3' shot distribution pattern and a 1' pattern. Those kinds of marginal improvements are what separate the top shooters from the next tier.

No disagreements here - for a full court shooter you definitely want as much consistency and accuracy as possible. For some reason I was under the impression that the OP was asking about pyramid shooters specifically instead of shooters in general. A back of pyramid shot fired straight at the goal has a fairly low entry angle and allows for a surprising amount of variation in shot height. As with every design decision ever made, it seems like the optimal amount of effort depends on your design requirements.

[Orion.DeYoe]

We used a flat piece of pool noodle about 3/8 inches thick. That was covered with a piece of 1/16 adhesive-backed rubber. This setup worked the best for our shooter after extensive testing.

[ablatner]

We use what some people call the roll-on equivalent of the polyurethane roller material 254 and other teams use. It's Scotch® Rubber Mastic Tape 2228, and it looks like this. It comes in a few widths. I believe we picked it up at OSH.

As for compression, we didn't measure. Our wheels and the motor mounts were adjustable, so we started testing with just a little bit, adding compression until the distance stopped increasing or started decreasing.

[HammadB]

We found through testing that in terms of maximizing distance and precision it depended on your rpm at wheel. At higher RPM's (I don't recall the exact numbers, I can dig up the data if your interested) we found a grippier material helped to impart spin to the disc (albeit this slowed the disc down due to higher friction). However, we noticed that gripper materials introduced more variability in the system. So we switched to a slower (medium ) RPM and a smooth polished aluminum surface which we put a little graphite powder on. This kept the spin at a high rate and still gave us the distance the higher speeds were giving us.

[Brandon Zalinsky]

We used tape that has a surface similar to a corkboard opposite our two plaction shooter wheels. The compression was pretty massive, as well- I can measure it tomorrow, but the frisbee bends quite a bit. Compression wasn't pre-determined, we built our shooter to adjust compression and tested until we got the best range. Due to these factors, we got some wicked spin on the frisbee, enough to make it near impossible to catch at outreach events where we were shooting to people.