What snap rings do you guys like to use for thunderhex? We are looking at changing from screws.
We used a product very similar to this last year (the link just takes you to the retaining ring page for some reason, they are the wide grip side mount). They are easy to do right, some of the slots were literally made by rotating the hex shaft against a band saw blade, though I would recommend a lathe for accuracy and safety. McMaster says you need a special tool but we just forced them on with pliers and then removed them with a flat head. Maybe one or two came off after a long time, but overall they worked very well and we will be using them again.
We use these for all 1/2in shafts. You can get a grooving tool for a lathe that allows you to cut that .039in groove for the snap ring. These rings are speced put to be put in a groove with a dia. of .468in but from experience you have quite a bit of wiggle room on that so if your 10 thou off it isn’t the biggest deal. Just try not to have the snap ring be a loose fit.
Here is the link to the one that I believe we use.
External snap rings, mcmaster sells them. They will be your best friends
What I am looking for is what ID do you like for thunderhex.
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We used these in addition to the ones I linked above. They also worked pretty well but we found we ended up deforming them too much to be re-used pretty often, which is the main reason we switched to the other ones.
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It’s actually great that you bring that up because I forgot to mention that we almost never reuse the snap rings. As you said they do stretch out if you pull them off without putting your full attention into not bending them too much so it’s really not work risking putting an old one back on when they are $10 for a pack of 100.
I believe we used the ones designed for 1/2" OD, but they are only $8 for 50, so you could get 1/2" and 7/16" and see which works best.
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I have used what are known as heavy duty external retaining rings. They seem to work well and I trust them more than the standard ones.
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What tool do you guys use to put these on?
Look no further than Knipexs, trust me.
What @Nikita_Nekrasov posted below works very well. I would get one or two of each type as there are times where you’ll really want an angle one and times where you’ll really want a straight one.
I will actually pass on a recommendation for this pair of pliers here.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/KNIPEX-5-1-2-in-Precision-Circlip-Snap-Ring-Pliers-with-Limiter-External-Straight-with-Adjustable-Opening-49-31-A0/305645049
Still made by Knipex which means they will be really good quality and also has an ajustable opening limiter. This is great for frc because you rarely use more than one or two sizes of snap rings on the robot and the adjustable limit allows us to set the plier such that we don’t gotta worry constantly about ovr stretching the snap ring.
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Good call, I’ve had my fair share of students over-zealously stretching snap rings too far 