Are you able to clean vex v5 gears

VEX V5 General Discussion
1

The gears on my robot have become very dirty is there a way to clean them.

1 Like
2

I would try lysol wipes on the gears, but let it dry

1 Like
3

Soap and water works but is not ideal.

1 Like
4

I use Lysol wipes. I run the drive and press the wipes against the gears. It isn’t perfect, and if you are not carefully the wipes will get caught, but it works pretty well for me.

3 Likes
5

I have one word for you. soap.

1 Like
6

Just using soap on gears will ruin them. Do not use exclusively soap unless you can clean them out, which usually requires a liquid, which is a process I do not recommend doing if your gears are to remain in your robot.

1 Like
7

Wipes work the best, you don’t need to disassemble things and you don’t have to worry about electronics so much. In extreme cases alcohol and a rag/brush will have a stronger chemical remove than a wipe and the brush will get more scrubbing done. generally don’t need it though.

1 Like
8

how will it ruin them?

9

Without some way to remove the soap, you will trap gunk between the teeth. Even liquid glue is sticky/tacky, and while its perfectly fine if you can wash out the gunk (the reason you need water when washing hands, not just soap) if you cant it will ruin the friction.

1 Like
10

Soap without rinsing it off will result in a leftover residue (white flaky stuff in my experience washing dishes) which will increase friction significantly. Plus it if you spin it against other drivetrain gears it will probably spread that white flaky stuff on the field.

VEX says their gears are made of acetal, which is quite resistant to basic chemicals (like soap). So I assume Entropy isn’t talking about any chemical stuff.

TL:dr, he thought you were using soap without rinsing with water afterwards.

2 Likes
11

Buy an ultrasonic cleaner. Take a spoon and coat it in Dawn. Mix with water in the basin. (Trying to get a small ratio of Dawn to water) Stir. Then bubble the parts until clean.

2 Likes
12

What I meant was that if you want to clean the gears while they are on your robot, it is impossible to use soap as the process of washing the soap away is practically guaranteed to splash water or chemicals on components that would not like it very much.

13

My bad I assumed using water with soap was a given.

14

I also made the assumption that if you are using liquids you would inherently take the gears off to wash them over a sink or something.