pic: gear boxes

[Kyle A]

loading photo ...

[EricH]

Congratulations. A kit gearbox finally broke due to team efforts. How much force/how many hits did the breaker(s) use? And, more importantly, is it still usable?

[Tytus Gerrish]

That looks like somthing i would do. why are you guys being like me, its not good for you.

[Kyle A]

Originally Posted by EricH

Congratulations. A kit gearbox finally broke due to team efforts. How much force/how many hits did the breaker(s) use? And, more importantly, is it still usable?

The kid was not hitting it very hard and it only took a few hits. And yes it is still usable because we use it like that in the Ramp Riot.

[Andrew Blair]

Well, I guess not not hard. I didn't personally see it happen, but boy did my jaw drop when I saw it. I know casting's are brittle, but that seems a little much. The gear box is completely useable, unless something else goes. Either way, we have two more of these if we have to replace it. Our mentor didn't completely trust these boxes, so bought spares. Guess he knew something!

So kids, remember: listen to your mentors, they might possibly not be totally wrong...

[David Guzman]

Funny, I thought it only happened to us.

The same exact thing happened to us on our practice robot. It still worked when it was broken but we got it welded and although it doesn't look great it works fine. I ll try to post a picture.

Dave

[scitobor 617]

When I first saw the picture I thought it was intentional to reduce weight. I had no clue that the casing was that brittle, that is very surprising.

[Cory]

Gotta wonder why exactly you'd be smacking the gearbox with a hammer...

at least get a mallet.

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by Cory

Gotta wonder why exactly you'd be smacking the gearbox with a hammer...

alignment....obviously....or perhaps they we trying to pressfit something to the top of the gearbox

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Stephen Kowski

alignment....obviously....or perhaps they we trying to pressfit something to the top of the gearbox

If I wanted to align it by smacking it with a hammer, I'd at least hit the aluminum base plate, instead of the casting.

[Nitroxextreme]

all I have to say is wow...just goes to show that you need to watch all your hammers

[Paul Copioli]

Well I guess you figured out that the gearbox casting wasn't designed to take a hammer hit on the side walls. Those side walls were designed as thin as could be cast in order to keep the weight down. Under normal robot operating loads, that should never happen .......

[phrontist]

We had an unexplained fracture exactly like this which we ascribed to manufacturing fluke. We were just playing with the practice bot and some observant student noticed it had developed a fissure. This was less than an hour of use...

[Andrew Y.]

as long as it dosent happen in the middle of a match

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Andrew Y.

as long as it dosent happen in the middle of a match

Nope sorry. I'd say that's the wrong mentality. (well, maybe not wrong but less than optimal) I's say we should all be striving to build robots that don't break at all.