3d printed wheel

[mlantry]

To put a little perspective into the choices made for this project some back story is needed. With the team I work with it is difficult to order parts quickly (can take 2 weeks for an order to be submitted to the company we wish to order from) as well as has to be an approved vendor (no McMaster Carr ). Thanks to this thread ( http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=Banebot ) it gave me an idea to create and try a 3d printed wheel for use in different mechanisms but then a new issue arised what could be used for tread? So me and my friend scoured our local home depot looking for a good tread material and came up with using rubber tie down strap which had a surprising amount of grip and through our testing seemed to wear pretty well. The wheel it self held up very well and is alot stronger than I was expecting. The changes (we already knew we needed to do these things) it needs to be done only with a key or a hex shaft because a set screw method was not very effective. Also we would want to increase the number of shells for the print. Also it is to wide for the tread.

[nate12345678]

Clever idea! Maybe try a concave torus for the next model, that way the support does not protrude out at all.

edit: Saw Brian's post, I didn't even look at it initially. (He's my mentor)

[DaveL]

Hi Matthew:
It might be interesting to test the performance of sideways and diagonal cuts in the tread, to see how that affects your traction and wear.

Dave

[mlantry]

Originally Posted by DaveL

Hi Matthew:
It might be interesting to test the performance of sideways and diagonal cuts in the tread, to see how that affects your traction and wear.

Dave

Definitely considering it I know some teams have do similar things to colsons with great results