Our team ran into a couple issues with collar clamps this year. First, we needed A LOT! Our intake, ball holder, climber, and drive train all required 1/2" hex collar clamps. After finding our usual on-line sellers out of stock or having to wait a week or more for shipping we designed and 3D printed our own. They work great, though don’t expect them to handle the same stress as a metal clamp. If your team is running low, needs to cut some weight, or you need a pile of extras for prototyping, download and print a bunch. There are two sizes for different size cap screws (1/4-20 and #6-32).
That’s awesome. We had a similar problem and found that rubber bands do a good job when there’s not a whole lot of lateral force. Plus, they’re under a penny each.
We’re testing some similar collars, that also use 1/4-20 screws. They’re printed out of Markforged Onyx, and are tapped directly. They’re printed solid to accomodate this. They’ve held up to any tests we’ve thrown at em so far.
Looks like a reasonable solution! I’ve seen teams using a lot of shaft collars this year… Personally, though, I try to avoid them. I often find it’s more reliable to utilize spacers (1/2" schedule 40 PVC pipe works great for this, fits perfectly over a 1/2" hex shaft!) to secure stuff in the middle of the shaft, and put a bolt and washer into the end of the shaft to secure it. Using that, we don’t have a single shaft collar on our robot!
