i have made an inventor file of a bearing bar. it is similar to a nut bar but is stronger and has larger holes, this would allow for more flexibility in design and allow to have bearing holes that are closer together without overlapping and spacing bearings away from the metal.
i came up with this while building my teams robot for this year, as having this simple part would have made the build easier, stronger, and allow more flexibility in design.
the 25x would have to be cut into desired lengths rather than broken apart like the nut bar that vex currently sells as to make sure they don’t break while in use.
vex states that nut bars can be drilled out and used as bearings but when I tried this, they kept on breaking and had a lot more friction than the delrin bearing do. personally, my team doesn’t use them on our robot anywhere except to mount the license plates because they are just hard to work with.
the bearing bar could even be an extension to a family of bars. nut bars, bearing bars, bar lock bars (idk if this would be useful), HS shaft bars etc.
I would definitely use these. While we’re at it, could we please get some smaller bearings that will fit inside the inner edge squares of C-Channels? Anyone whose ever built a good scissor lift has probably gone through the pain of grinding a hundred bearings to fit. It isn’t fun.
We use the middle holes or the outer holes for the bearing blocks to avoid the problem. However, if it is unavoidable, instead of sanding the bearing flats down we just bend the c-channel edge out slightly.
it is funny that the bearing don’t fit inside of the metal. it does give the bearings a little more endurance though. I have broken many bearing that the edge has been slightly shaved to fit inside the c channel. if they where made thinner, on both side, I think it might make things more frustrating. imagine when your whole drive breaks down during competition because 1 or 2 bearings broke in a collision during the auto period.
I will never build a scissor lift in the future and deal with those issues.
btw good luck at worlds cyberbrains fellow Colorado team, the fuse are amazing, especially with their scissor lift and autonomous (2nd place in programming skills in the world :eek: ) .
I’ve had similar ideas, along the lines of reducing parts count.
Current wheel axle bearing requires additional: 2 bolts, 2 nuts, wheel spacer, locking collar== 6 parts in addition to bearing for total of 7.
Eg: a 3 hole bearing, with full metal thickness alignment squares, end holes are “self-taping holes” for #6 screws so that more self-alignment square plastic holes the location;
Double thick, As thick as C channel, so spacers are not needed.
Center hole is sized for minor diameter of shaft. (grind ends of shafts to be round!)
Center hole can be blind (closed end) to keep shaft captured, or sell add-on outside capture plate 3 holes long but only 2 holes at 1" pitch. (grind end of shaft to a pivot point)
Total parts count: bearing + 2 bolts == 3 for blind hole, or 4 for capture plate.
Plus, assembly stackup of axle is simple, much easier than getting all the washers/spacers right.
~50% parts count reduction, and related increased reliability.
Alternate idea: bearing bar fits on diagonal, so original C channel is capture plate.
