pic: Kitbot Chain Tensioner 2

[patrickbosch]

Originally Posted by Doug G

We tried an approach like that in 2006, but yours is very elegant. In 2007 we gave up with it and used a super simple solution... A chuck of UHMW PolyEthylene Rod with a hole drilled in it offcenter. Rotate it into the chain and whala... Tension!! Rotate it the other way and you can remove chain off the wheel. Very simple and worked well. True there is a bit more frictional loss - but in 7 years of competing, we never had a simpler, more reliable solution. .Here's a pic..

Ha, we had this idea as well, except it was cammed delrin for a tensioner. It appears as if it worked very well, did you have any problems keeping the tensioner from slipping?