#25 Chain

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by cbale2000

IMO, #25 chain is great for mechanisms but unless you know what you're doing it's a pain for drive systems. Some teams can make it work, but most underestimate the level of difficulty to get it right. Essentially #35 chain has the benefit of added tolerance for mistakes, so as others have rightly pointed out, the quick fix for #25 chain acting up, is to just use #35 chain.

That said, issues with chains breaking, skipping, and maintenance are the main reason we no longer use chains on our drive system. Geardrive ftw.

I would argue that if you can make a drive unit rigid enough to not mis-align gears, and precisely enough to enable proper gear meshing, then you can make a drive that can easily handle no-maintenance chain or belts reliably.

And, yes, no-maintenance (aside from lubrication, which gears need too) chain drives exist.

Originally Posted by galewind

Thanks for this thread. It's very enlightening.

Does anyone have a reliable source for #25HD chain? It's a bit harder to find, from my cursory looks (the vendors we use don't sell it).

Thanks!

VexPro only sells #25HD as far as I can tell, by deduction in that they only sell #25 HD master links and state that only HD master links work with their chain. Comparing it side-by-side with other #25 chain sources makes it even more obvious.

I wish they'd state it on their website though...

Edit: boy, Dr. Joe sure knows how to make an engineer blush...