Custom rollers

FIRST General Forum
1

We are looking at making some custom rollers this year. I was looking at team 254 intake roller from last years and was wondering what material they used to cover the wheel and how they attached it. Also what they used for the roller itself. Does anyone have any advice on this

2

See thisthread.

3

This got my hopes up I was thinking this meant custom mecanum rollers…

4

2̶̶̶5̶̶̶4̶̶̶,̶ ̶a̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶33 and a few others, used abrasion-resistant gum rubber tubing. They slid it on using compressed air but you can also use a solvent. The rubber tubing is slid onto a roller made of either aluminum of PVC with bearings or bushings pressed into the ends.

Edit: See Cory’s post below.

5

If you want a custom roller, try colson wheels. They get fantastic grip on everything.

6

Thanks for the great responses. Does anyone have a video or anything of how to put the abrasion-resistant gum rubber tubing on?

Also how much smaller do you make the tube then the wheel?

7

We love using these: http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-polyurethane-hollow-tubing/=vf6xg9

It’s a great pseudo-plastic rubber that has good grip on just about everything FIRST can throw at you.

8

I’m not sure exactly what they used but its some form of hollow rubber tubing from McMaster I believe. We tried a test this year with something similar. McMaster #86805K28.

We pressed the tubing onto 1/2in OD shaft which held nicely.

9

You could look at videos of people installing golf grips for a comparable analogy. You can use either an air compressor or slide them on with solvent, as mentioned before.

10

We used surgical tubing, not the gum rubber tubing. Went onto a 1" OD .063" wall tube with plugs welded into the end to drive it from.

11

thanks. I will give that a try. Was there anything special about the surgical tubing?

12

If you want to slide or stretch rubber over a tube, a little warm water with a small amount of hand soap helps it slide on nice and once dry, it will stay put.

13

One thing to note about the surgical tubing we used last year:

We regularly cleaned the rollers (and the rubber shooter flywheel) with a microfiber rag and 70% iso-propyl alcohol in between matches so as to get rid of any dirt or grease that stuck to the roller, improving the grip of the rollers/wheel on the balls significantly.

14

Where can you get this surgical tubing?

15

The “super soft latex tubing” is available from McMaster, Cory or someone else from 254 can probably recommend the best latex size-aluminium tube combinations as they use it extensively.

16

The “super soft latex tubing” is available from McMaster, Cory or someone else from 254 can probably recommend the best latex size-aluminium tube combinations as they use it extensively. I believe they only use the opaque grey/black tube.

17

This year our team riveted 1" x 3" pieces of tread to a 2" aluminum roller, that thing was amazing at picking up balls

Imgur

18

A trick commonly used for installing rubber motorcycle hand-grips (if air isn’t available) is to lube with hairspray. Slippery when wet - the grips slide on easily - and very very sticky when dry.

19

1323 actually did this this year.

They 3d printed the bodies, and used surgical tubing on some sort of shaft for the roller. You’d have to ask them for more details, but from talking to them it sounded like they worked pretty well, but wore out quickly. A lot cheaper than the $25 LEGO ones though :slight_smile: