Hello,
As part of my design for a VEX competition I have a series of gears set up for a decent amount of torque. The gears finally, after several drive gears in the middle, drive a metal bar that on another side of the structure holds an arm that goes up and down based on motor movement. This torque is absolutely critical in order to lift the arm’s weight and any weight that the arm lifts.
However, after a competition with flawless design performance, during improvements and repairs before the next competition I realized that between the drive gear and the arm the bar twisted on its axis to look like a drill bit. I was wondering if there is any way to strengthen the system so it uses only VEX parts (so the design is legal for VEX competitions) yet does not twist like it did. (as a small note, the bar was cut and grinded for aesthetic reasons but only on one end, so under common sense I would think that the ends would possibly be weakened but not the dead center of the bar)
Thank you,
Greg Krummel