Reducing Friction in Shooter

[mott]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

All things considered, if you only need 14 pounds to release your mechanism you're in good shape. The 3/4" bore piston at 60 PSI pushes with 26.5 lbs of force. It pulls with somewhat less force since the piston rod takes away some surface area.

Are you having trouble shifting the piston under load? Does it take too long? An easy fix would be moving the gear to the end of the shifter so that you push to shift to neutral. If you still need more force, it is possible to get creative and mount a bigger piston to the mechanism, but be warned that the Vex shifter components (bearing and e-clips) cannot handle a ton more than 30 pounds of force.

One last thing: are you sure it's the gearbox that's slowing you down?

Chris, I think what he means is that once into Neutral, the resistance in the launcher system consumes 14lbs of his available shooting force, thus reducing the energy remaining to put into the ball.

OP, is this correct?

If so, can you describe your system in a little more detail? What material are your "moving part" surfaces made of, etc.?