I am currently in the process of deciding whether or not to use Thunderhex on our 2016 robot. I will admit that I am one that likes to save as much money as possible. So while researching thunder hex I found that for a little over a dollar a bearing I could buy some tight press bearings from Vex. The catch is they are 0.01mm under the effective diameter of Thunderhex, making it apparent that they will be a tight fit. My question is does any one have experience with these bearing?
They will be a tight press fit. You need to turn the ends down for a sliding fit. You really don’t want them unless you have some application where the shaft doesn’t need to be removed.
We exclusively purchased these bearings last year, and just turned our shafts down to match the bearing diameter. If you’re starting with thunderhex stock, you might be able to sand the shaft down until the bearings slide easily.
I recently purchased 6 of the flanged Thunderhex bearings and didn’t know about the press fit until assembly. I ended up using emery cloth on the lathe at work to make the shafts a slip fit.
We exclusively purchased these bearings last year. All of our “thunderhex” shafts were turned from normal hex stock we had previously purchased anyways, so it was trivial to shave just a bit more material off. If you have a lathe and some time, they’re a no brainer.
Thanks for the feed back. If I can get out metal shop teacher to help get some lathes exactly centered then I think we might just use some of the normal hex turned down. Part of that is the thunderhex supply is currently corrupted (aka it is over sized by 0.0003" due to manufacture changes).