Our first elevator and we are looking for advice to avoid problems and assemble properly. Andy Mark doesn’t have any guides, videos or references and we were unable to find anything specific on CD. We’ve watched the videos from 973 (which are very helpful) but are looking for advice on assembly, best attachment sites for motors, chain (25 vs 35) or other, spring advice, wire management and stability issues like how much stage overlap should we leave to maintain stability. The actuator on the elevator is looking to be 10-15 pounds.
Thank you
Have you checked the assembly guide that Andymark has on the product page?
Yes. It is single stage assembly only, with no guidance on anything except the frame. We understand that pretty well.
You can look at the Greyt Universal Elevator for inspiration on how to add a second stage as well as how the chain and string layout works.
A couple of key points.
The basic outer structure is U shaped so that the middle section can extend past it. The bar that holds the top of that U together must be attached in a position that allows the bearings on the carriage (the inner most frame) to pass by it. In other words it must be far enough away from the tube so that the wheels on the carriage, and anything extending out the back of the carriage can pass by it. How that is mounted to the U is also important as it must allow for the wheels of the Carriage to have a path to roll on.
The rollers that make the middle stage move must be mounted so that one set is on the bottom of the middle structure and one set is at the top of the outer structure.
The overlap of the middle and out structures are driven by the height of the carriage. Because the carriage moves at the same rate relative to the middle structure as the middle structure moves relative to the outer structure the distance that the middle structure can move equals the distance the carriage can move. In other words the height of the carriage determines the final overlap of the middle and outer structures.
Because the overall height the Carriage can obtain is 2x the distance it can move in the middle structure I don’t think you’ll want to assemble the Carriage as in the directions. I’ think what we are going to try is to build a rectangle and turn the brackets around so that the nylon rollers are on the outside and the bearings are in the inside. That will allow more travel before the bearings are stopped by the corner gussets. Not sure it that will work or not, but we are going to mock that up with some of the pieces from last season’s lift that used the Competition Robot Parts roller kit.
On our lift we placed the motor and transmission at the top of the lift. The advantage of this is that it is far less sensitive to chain tension. With the motor mounted to the top the lifting force is only transmitted through half of the chain and it causes the chain to stay fully engaged with the drive sprocket even if the chain is loose. The trade off is it results in a higher CoG and longer wire runs that need to be protected.
Hopefully this helps some.
1 Like