pic: WCD

[josesantos]

Originally Posted by the.miler

Alternatively, you could make your bearing block out of a single piece of 1.25" wide by 2" high at 1/8" thickness tube, available at onlinemetals:

http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant...269&top_cat=60

I know it's 6063 aluminum; our drivetrain was made with the stuff last year, and it was just fine to machine.

Bore your bearing hole and a couple of screw holes, and then lop off the top of your tube to make a C-channel like piece. Slide it onto the robot, tighten down your screws, and you're good. Our team used the system on previous robots before we moved away from the cantilevered drivetrain design; while I cannot personally attest to its effectiveness, as it was before my time, our mentors recall the solution as doing a fantastic job. Since we intend to return to cantilevered drive this year, we have of course revamped the design; a screenshot is here:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...06823682841202

All the advantages of imbedding your bearings in a single piece, without having to make three different bearing block pieces. I thought it was genius when I first saw it, and the material is readily available.

Seems like a pretty fantastic idea altogether. Have you considered using rod ends instead eye bolts for tensioning? I might be misunderstanding how your system works, but the eye bolts in your CAD seem excessively large compared to the bolts being pulled.