Telescoping arm bearing block help

[lukedude43]

Hey, lately I've been looking into telescoping arms and I am pretty confident in my understanding of there mechanics, but the one thing I just don't understand are the bearing blocks inside. If there was any way I could get pictures or drawings of some teams bearing blocks I think I could figure it out.

thanks in advance

[Brandon Zalinsky]

I'm not sure I understand you. Are you talking about linear bearings like this that allow linear movement through the bearing? Or are you talking about the bearings for pulleys on a cable-driven telescope? Most of the time, when our team refers to "bearing blocks", it's regarding a piece of metal or plastic that holds a bearing in place, usually on the side of a wheel or other driven implement opposite the motor. Can you please add some more details?

[Adrian Clark]

This thread should help you out a lot:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...light=233+arms

[AlecS]

I think he is referring to the bearing blocks used to the guide the inner and outer tubes in the arm.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n..._5274788_o.jpg

This is the bearing block system from 604's first arm in 2011, which was 3" square outside tubing and 1.5" square inside tubing. The left block inside the top of the outer tubing and the right block inside the bottom of the inside tubing. The bearing system worked great, but even with the large block split into four pieces, there was a lot of machining in those blocks. We redid the arm with much smaller tubing as an off-season project later with delrin slides. It was far lighter, but did have a noticeable amount of friction. However, the machine time was next to nothing, even on a benchtop cnc.

Hopefully this is what you are looking for

[lukedude43]

Yea that's exactly what I was referring to that makes perfect sense, thanks