pic: Vex Face Bearing Gusset Gearbox

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Ari423

It looks like the two pieces VersaFrame still need to be precision machined for the gears to mesh well. Am I wrong? If not, how is this any different from any other custom gearbox?

EDIT: How are the CIMs attached to the top piece of VersaFrame? There are holes through the gusset plates, but I don't see anything through the VF itself. Is the plan just to mount the CIMs to the gussets?

EDIT 2: Is there any reason why the first reduction has to also sum to 84 teeth, or can that be any gear ratio provided you use the right C2C distance?

There is no "top piece of VersaFrame" - the assembly above the single tube of VF is apparently composed of Bearing Gussets riveted together.

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

There is no "top piece of VersaFrame" - the assembly above the single tube of VF is apparently composed of Bearing Gussets riveted together.

Are you sure? That look a lot like gussets bolted onto VersaFrame with holes drilled into it on the 3D model.

EDIT: still not sure how the CIMs are being attached to the gussets and VersaFrame

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

There is no "top piece of VersaFrame" - the assembly above the single tube of VF is apparently composed of Bearing Gussets riveted together.

There are gussets bolted to another portion of 2x1" versa channel.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

There are gussets bolted to another portion of 2x1" versa channel.

Originally Posted by Han Solo, in Star Wars IV: A New Hope, upon recognizing the Death Star as not being a moon

I think you're right.

That's even more disturbing than what I thought I was looking at earlier, which was disturbing enough. What's the point of doing a VersaFrame "gearbox" with exposed gears if you have to cut out that many rectangular holes to allow gears to reach outside of the tube? For me at least, the answer is emphatically none.

[aldaeron]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Interesting idea. Have you done any price comparisons between using your method and using clamping gearboxes*?

*See the "gearing options" portion at the bottom of the page.

I have seen what you are talking about. This drawing shows how clever Vex was when making the plastic bearing blocks and clamping gearbox.

My issue is that we used the plastic bearing blocks on our simple 2015 drivetrain and the blocks cracked a lot. To the point that we reinforced them with .125 sheet metal because we were tired of changing them. And that was for a game with no contact. We ran a Vex Double Reduction Gearbox, with its output into one of the plastic bearing blocks and then did a 54:30 reduction via the two pressed together blocks. I was not a fan, hence the desire for more durable metal parts. YMMV.

On the same topic I wish Vex & WCP would slightly modify the VersaBlock such that it has a small flat side and the same 84T spacing as shown above. It would be a small modification, but would make VersaBlocks even better (though still expensive).

[aldaeron]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

That's even more disturbing than what I thought I was looking at earlier, which was disturbing enough. What's the point of doing a VersaFrame "gearbox" with exposed gears if you have to cut out that many rectangular holes to allow gears to reach outside of the tube? For me at least, the answer is emphatically none.

I never said this was a particularly efficient way of making a gearbox. It does involve a lot of cutting and drilling and clamping. If you want easy, buy something off the shelf - there is a lot of good stuff out there. I have a lot of younger students who LOVE clamping and drilling with the drill press.

The intention is for teams without access to a CNC to be able to make "custom" gearboxes. This is primarily an idea for my team - we used to have access to a CNC mill via a local makerspace, but it went out of business. Students used to enjoy designing and fabricating the gearboxes themselves. By "custom" I mean that the students can design the gearbox and select from more gear ratios than what Vexpro, AM and WCP offer as COTS. And if they make a mistake or are unhappy with the first iterations, the gears can be swapped.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by aldaeron

I never said this was a particularly efficient way of making a gearbox. It does involve a lot of cutting and drilling and clamping. If you want easy, buy something off the shelf - there is a lot of good stuff out there. I have a lot of younger students who LOVE clamping and drilling with the drill press.

The intention is for teams without access to a CNC to be able to make "custom" gearboxes. This is primarily an idea for my team - we used to have access to a CNC mill via a local makerspace, but it went out of business. Students used to enjoy designing and fabricating the gearboxes themselves. By "custom" I mean that the students can design the gearbox and select from more gear ratios than what Vexpro, AM and WCP offer as COTS. And if they make a mistake or are unhappy with the first iterations, the gears can be swapped.

As always, your mileage may vary.

[Justin Montois]

Pretty cool!