Bearings vs Bearing Blocks

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

First, COTS bearing blocks have the advantage of a precision bore to retain bearings - for teams without machining resources, this is simply the only way they're going to pull off a reliable live axle drivetrain.

Actually for the past three years we, using only a handsaw and hand drill, have built live axle drivetrains without using bearing blocks. The tricks is to use a piece of plastic block (I believe we use HDPE) with a semicircle cut into it on one side. The block is bolted onto the chassis semicircle side down and the live axle sits in the semicircle. The weight of the robot and the bolts holding on the gearbox keep the axle seated in the cutout, and the plastic has so little friction that the axle turns as if the plastic were a bearing. This also allows us to easily remove the gearbox, wheel, and axle without having to remove the bearing, while avoiding cantilevering the drive axles.

This may be a confusing explaination and I don't have any pictures from home, but if anyone is interested I can try to explain in more detail and get pictures the next time I'm in the shop.