Wheels for drill-gearboxes?

[Coolspeedbot]

So does anyone know of any other wheels that can be fitted to drill motor shafts?

Or is going to be a case of making them from scratch?

[Coolspeedbot]

The hex hole wheels I have used in the past secure onto a hex hub. The bore of the hub as around 0.5mm larger than a drill motor but a thin copper shim allowed it to be used. I'm not sure what the current status of banebots manufacture is.

When I checked Bangbots it says the bores on their wheels are now 1/2 instead of 3/4.

[RogueTwoRobots]

Yeah the 3/4" hex was the one that was suitable for drill motors with a threaded 3/8" mounting hole. The best option is to make your own now, with the most common method being to melt a 3/8" UNF nut into a plain bore plastic wheel. I did this by sitting the nut on an 80W soldering iron for a minute or so then pressing it into the plastic. Bit of a tricky process to get the nut both concentric and straight so that your wheel doesn't wobble but usually good enough for the job. Not the strongest method as it can wear down over time causing the wheel to come off, but should do the job for a few events at least.

Either plain bore Banebots wheels (with the bore drilled out to 12mm) or the blue wheels from Bearing Boys are the favoured options available at the moment, but anything with no bigger than a 12mm bore should work. I found that if the bore was bigger than 12mm, there wouldn't be enough plastic to melt around the nut, resulting in a weaker connection.

[Coolspeedbot]

Yeah the 3/4" hex was the one that was suitable for drill motors with a threaded 3/8" mounting hole. The best option is to make your own now, with the most common method being to melt a 3/8" UNF nut into a plain bore plastic wheel. I did this by sitting the nut on an 80W soldering iron for a minute or so then pressing it into the plastic. Bit of a tricky process to get the nut both concentric and straight so that your wheel doesn't wobble but usually good enough for the job. Not the strongest method as it can wear down over time causing the wheel to come off, but should do the job for a few events at least.

Either plain bore Banebots wheels (with the bore drilled out to 12mm) or the blue wheels from Bearing Boys are the favoured options available at the moment, but anything with no bigger than a 12mm bore should work. I found that if the bore was bigger than 12mm, there wouldn't be enough plastic to melt around the nut, resulting in a weaker connection.

so in theory the new Banebots wheels could be used if I mod them

[Coolspeedbot]

do you mean these wheels
http://www.bearingboys.co.uk/Blue-El...r-Wheel-8698-p

http://www.banebots.com/product/WC1-4.html

[daveimi]

Long story short build a beetle lol its all available off the shelf.

[harry hills]

I know right, building robots is hard. Occasionally you have to make parts and build things.

[daveimi]

Lol not everyone's a machinist by trade, sometimes easier for people to buy tight-tolerance parts off the shelf for a first attempt.

[harry hills]

I think it's just a bit of a defeatist attitude. Don't try, it's too hard, build a lego building block robot instead. How are people going to learn without doing. Robots are a great problem solving exercise, its not helpful to anyone to be told to give up and do something else when they ask the best way to do something.

Its not like making wheels like this is the height of difficulty either. I did this as a 13/14 year old (Not wonderful quality granted) with the bare minimum of kit.

Personally I'd go for the bearingboys wheels. They're decent enough and are uk based + cheap.

[daveimi]

To be honest I was just trying to make people laugh. I am serious in terms of people starting with a beetle if they're struggling with making a wheel that spins true on a shaft. There's nothing defeatist about starting small n working up to the more difficult stuff.

[Coolspeedbot]

To be honest I was just trying to make people laugh. I am serious in terms of people starting with a beetle if they're struggling with making a wheel that spins true on a shaft. There's nothing defeatist about starting small n working up to the more difficult stuff.

I started with ant weights myself

[RogueTwoRobots]

The Colson wheels you linked to on the Banebots site likely wouldn't work with the nut melt method. The bore comes out at ~15.5mm, which doesn't leave enough material for the nut to melt into. I'd second Harry's advice and go for the Bearing Boys wheels. They're very cheap and plenty of stock, with a 12mm bore which is ideal for melting nuts into, and although they're not as grippy as the 'Blue' wheels that used to be sold by Robo Challenge, that can be easily solved by screwing some bike tyre onto them if you find grip to be an issue.

[Coolspeedbot]

Ok thanks for the advice guys

[Coolspeedbot]

The Colson wheels you linked to on the Banebots site likely wouldn't work with the nut melt method. The bore comes out at ~15.5mm, which doesn't leave enough material for the nut to melt into. I'd second Harry's advice and go for the Bearing Boys wheels. They're very cheap and plenty of stock, with a 12mm bore which is ideal for melting nuts into, and although they're not as grippy as the 'Blue' wheels that used to be sold by Robo Challenge, that can be easily solved by screwing some bike tyre onto them if you find grip to be an issue.

Another issue I can see is the width of the wheels from Bearing boys looks like it might take up too much space on the shaft of the drill motor, in my robot's case at least.

[Runsler]

Soo... reviving this thread...

I am completely lost on imperial measurements.
So on the usual drill gearboxes, as well as on ranglebox neptunes and a few others we have a 3/8 unf thread on the outside.
And a reverse M5 on the inside?
Anybody can tell me why use two systems of measurement?

The video from Ellis that was mentioned at the start of this thread is sadly gone (or really good at hiding).
I did watch the one posted by Jamie on the hex hub adapters.

Anyway... so to put the wheels on it's like this:

1.get 3/8 UNF Nuts.
2.drill holes in the wheels just a bit smaller than the diameter of the nuts from flat side to flat side.
3.Hammer the nuts in or heat them up and melt them in (both seem to work).
4.put a big washer on the shaft.
5.screw the wheel on the shaft.
6.Put another washer onto the M% reverse screw.
7.Screw that one into the inner thread.

Did i get that right? Or is that outdated anyway by now?