Chain Tensioner

[RoboGeek99]

We were debating whether a floating tensioner (leaning to toward one manufactured by McMaster-Carr Model #5973K2) would work on a chain with a slight angle...we called the customer service and they didnt know so we wondered if anyone ever used on a chain path not parallel to the ground...if so how efective

Love, Peace, and Robot Grease
Team 2582 PantherBots

[sdcantrell56]

Buy the floating tensioner from Andymark. It is much cheaper and will probably work better.

[RoboGeek99]

Originally Posted by sdcantrell56

Buy the floating tensioner from Andymark. It is much cheaper and will probably work better.

how well do they work on an angled chain path?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by RoboGeek99

We were debating whether a floating tensioner (leaning to toward one manufactured by McMaster-Carr Model #5973K2) would work on a chain with a slight angle...we called the customer service and they didnt know so we wondered if anyone ever used on a chain path not parallel to the ground...if so how efective

Love, Peace, and Robot Grease
Team 2582 PantherBots

I've seen those work on two sprockets of very different size when they chain is intentionally looser, so that tensioner pulls the chain very close together, a distance apart that is less than the pitch diameter of the sprocket I imagine.

[Dominicano0519]

i think they should work the same because the tensioner angles the chain anyway besides if its taught the chain will have the same tension everywhere

just like a pulley

[dpeterson3]

I would use something similiar to what we used last year. It worked very well and cost about $6-$10 per tensioner. It was a skateboard wheel with a bolt going through it pulled back by two stiff springs. Just fingue out a way to mount it at the angle you want. (trust me. I do this for racing motor cycles quite a bit)

Srpings are from Ace
Long bolts we had
Got a $10 kiddie skateboard from Walmart and too the wheels off.

[Dick Linn]

You can cut/file/turn a slight groove in the skateboard wheel to provided a little lateral support if things get sloppy.

Chains work on a slight angle - watch a motocross race where they whip around a tight turn.

[merybar]

We have used these for several years and they work AWESOME!!!!

[Dick Linn]

Originally Posted by merybar

We have used these for several years and they work AWESOME!!!!

These what? Skateboard wheel tensioners or AndyMark tensioners or the McMaster-Carr part? Do be terse.

And are they awesome, or do they work awesomely?

[thefro526]

We're using this tensioner from AndyMark:

http://www.andymark.biz/am-0286.html

[Dick Linn]

Originally Posted by thefro526

We're using this tensioner from AndyMark:

http://www.andymark.biz/am-0286.html

Wonderful! Things don't have to be really high-tech to work well, eh? The point of a conventional chain tensioner is not really to "tension" a chain, so much as to prevent slack from derailing it. A rigid tensioner on a bi-directional drive system does help eliminate lash...

[Triple B]

who needs chain tensioners?
we are leavin them out again this year, less weight.
mike d

[Dick Linn]

Originally Posted by Triple B

who needs chain tensioners?
we are leavin them out again this year, less weight.
mike d

Amen.

[dpeterson3]

They will work on a slight angle, but I would try to keep them as strait as possible. It works better. These work very well.

[RoboGeek99]

Originally Posted by Triple B

who needs chain tensioners?
we are leavin them out again this year, less weight.
mike d

wow thats cutting it close...the drive train/ tension was our biggest problem last year and hence our biggest concern this year