Questions-Thoughts/Input On First Drivetrain Design

[IanW]

Couple of things:

• The sheet thickness is almost certainly fine. See example below. However,
• Using a router to cut material will probably be challenging. As I understand it, the bit will tend to grab the material and yank it around with thin sheet. Granted, I don't personally have experience with this, but I've heard this said previously in other threads
• The sides are probably beefier than they need to be. Again, see example below

This past year my team and Team 1983 used a similar sheet metal design:
FRC 2374
FRC 1983
Both of these designs were from before kickoff and thus modified to address the challenges of the game.
Both teams only used one piece of sheet metal on the side panels, not a full box like you have. We then pop riveted the sheets to pieces of angle aluminum. Our rivets were on a 2" spacing. The chassis seemed to hold up quite well.

Good work though, good luck on your future iterations.

[Garrett.d.w]

Originally Posted by Matthew.Mc

If you could post a picture of a CAD model of how you mounted the Shifter it would be nice. Thanks

Here we go, hopefully this helps sort out my previous post (which after reading it again makes no sense).

The first pic is for context. The drivetrain is a 6wd West coast drive from this years competition robot. Even though the drive systems are different, the concept still holds true.Chains and extraneous hardware have been removed for clarity.


Here is a view of the rail.

And finally a fancy exploded view.

[Matthew.Mc]

Originally Posted by msimon785

Overall, that is a solid chassis. I do have a few suggestions, however.
Right now, your AM Shifters are relying on the bellypan for all support. You can easily fix this by lowering the height of the frame such that it lines up with the top of the shifters and flanging it over, allowing the frame to rivet into the shifters from top and bottom.

Your pocketing isn't as efficient as it can be. Based on the style that you seem to be using, you may want to try a 118-esque Isogrid.
You could also go with the ever popular (254+1323+233+ many other teams) diamond style bellypan pocketing.

Other than that, it looks like a solid start to a drivetrain. Good luck!

Thanks msimon785, I'll definitely try out the diamond cut on the belly pan as well as the AM Shifter mounting.

sanddrag, I wasn't sure what the correct spacing was for rivets, so I figured i put in a lot and then remove later if necessary