I’ve noticed that a lot of teams, as well as the Robot in 3 Days project, have been using the AndyMark 8 inch pneumatic wheels. Have any teams tried out 6 inch pneumatic wheels? If so, how have they performed, and where did you purchase them from, since AndyMark only has 8 inch? Thanks in advance.
We’ve been using a 6 inch Skyway pneumatic wheel(listed on this page as '5" caster wheel") that we’ve had lying around from a robot many many years ago. It worked great, but we ordered more, and the tire has a tread that is different from the one shown in the picture, which is also the one that we had. Another issue is that the wheels seemed to wobble when running them. This was all after today, and we’ve yet to find another 6 inch pneumatic wheel (Smaller sized pneumatic wheels have been hard to find…I searched A LOT for one last year…)
I’ve been looking at the McMaster2717T55 wheel, but I fear 5000 RPM may be too much. ::safety::
The McMaster 2717T55 has tires that are emblazoned with the statement “NOT FOR HIGHWAY USE.”
After quite a bit of testing, we haven’t seen any problems with spinning the McMaster 2717T55 at high RPM. Make sure you have a good hub that centers the wheel properly for balanced operation.
On the other hand, if the tires were marked “NOT FOR FRISBEE SHOOTER USE” I’d be worried.
You may not need 5000RPM. with our shooter we saw similar results for every increment we tried between 2500 and 5000. watch for slippage!
Would a racing kart wheel work? Maybe heavier but some racing karts can go over 100 mph (not the kid kart pictured in link below). Their tires can be extremely "sticky"for traction on a track.
We are having pretty good success with the 6" pneumatic wheels from Mcmaster carr. In our testing the maximum speed we have been running is 4500 rpm, and the wheel seems to be holding up just fine. Sure there is quite a bit of vibration, but if we put in some effort to balance the wheel it would be a lot better.
I do believe the 6" Andymarks are out in a week or two, nobody has had a shot to use them yet because they aren’t out of manufacturing. At least that is what Andy said when he was eating lunch.
I think its safe to assume they will shoot very similarly to the 8" wheels, probably a little shorter because the distance traveled in the shooter will go down. However, the contact pressure relief will be pretty nice and prevent miss fires with more consistent shots.
We tried using some 6" pneumatic wheels from McMaster but found them to be too heavy. Instead we became inspired by the many smaller wheeled shooters and shifted to a high rpm direct drive system and smaller (4" and 2.5") neoprene wheels.
How was your team able to mount the wheels to work with CIMs?
Andy Mark 6’’ wheel is E.R. Wagner donated by Graingers. It’s discontinued and replaced by Albion which has a different rim dia. We found 6" Wagner on Amazon, hopefully AM hubs will fit.
We drilled an “AndyMark bolt pattern” (6 holes on a 1.875" circle) into the wheel and then mounted it with a pair of standard AndyMark hubs. (See Home - Mechanical - Motion - Hubs - AndyMark, Inc )
The attached drawing has the details of where to put the holes. Be careful to get the wheel completely centered when mounting it.
Wagner-Wheel-Drawing-1519.pdf (29.7 KB)
Wagner-Wheel-Drawing-1519.pdf (29.7 KB)
We used the same wheel (2717T55) and made a hub adapter: A round piece of 3/16" aluminum, drilled for the bolt pattern of the wheel hub, with a 1/2" hole broached for 1/8" key in the center. It is sandwiched between the two halves of the wheel hub (rim?). We modified a 1/2" - 3/8" coupler to fit the CIM motor and drive the wheel off 1/2" keyed shaft, bearings at each end.