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[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

Each gear will be anodized.

If your gears are steel, I don't believe they can be anodized. And if they were aluminum, why would you anodize gears? It would add extra "thickness" on every anodized suface (not much but enough) which could cause a problem with teeth meshing. The only anodized gears I've ever seen are made from stock that is already anodized, then the gears are cut leaving a fresh precision surface for the teeth.

Perhaps you meant hardened?

[Arefin Bari]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

If your gears are steel, I don't believe they can be anodized. And if they were aluminum, why would you anodize gears? It would add extra "thickness" on every anodized suface (not much but enough) which could cause a problem with teeth meshing. The only anodized gears I've ever seen are made from stock that is already anodized, then the gears are cut leaving a fresh precision surface for the teeth.

Perhaps you meant hardened?

yup .. sorry for the confusion... i meant to say harden the aluminum gears...

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Arefin Bari

yup .. sorry for the confusion... i meant to say harden the aluminum gears...

Why aluminum and not steel? I'm always a fan of saving weight (aren't we all) but I like to keep a bit of "beef" in areas prone to failure, or where I have seen failure before.

I don't know enough to do the calculations, but if someone can mathematically convince me that aluminum 20P gears are suitable in a FIRST robot gearbox application (even say non-shifting), then I'll run right out and by some.

But, because I can't mathematically prove or disprove the success of aluminum gears, I always just opt for the safer side and go with steel, as do most teams I assume.

If someone has done an aluminum geartrain and it worked, I'd love to hear about it and see some pictures. If anyone thinks it will work, I'd love to see some calculations. I'm not by any means saying it does or will not work, I am saying I have no clue and would really like to find out.