Don't buy this expensive Clamping Shaft Collars

[sunny05122020]

We bought 3 packs of that kind of collars. It looks good but they can’t be turned tight for hold the shaft. It’s so bad design but they sell them much more expensive than plastic collars. Don’t buy them! Wish they can refund us!

[Droideka]

They mostly won’t do refunds. ($$$)

[Harik_Sodhi]

Are you using them for low strength or high strength shafts (high strength shafts are very thick and can be put in wheels etc without the metal inserts) {just checking}

[LoJac10]

Low Profile HS Clamping Shaft Collar...Caveat Emptor

If you bought Low Profile High Strength Clamping Shaft Collar - 276-7580 get ready to have your patience tested. The insert screw for the collar “strips out” extremely easy. Which is really nice in the middle of a build and you are not able to remove the collar. Which usually means you will have to disassembly the mechanism you are working on to get at the problem. We bought our first batch and within (1) practice session we had two striped out collars . Sure blame it on the kids overtightenin…

[physics_smith]

Anyone have a replacement screw that doesn’t strip instantly if you are 1 degree off from perfectly aligned?

[sunny05122020]

clamping is for locking the shaft

[Paul_Meyers1]

McMaster p/n: 90128A184

These strip out way less than the screws included from VEX. They are Hex drive, but they will work fine with a T8 driver.

[61466B]

These Collars worked fine for us last year. However we found that they need a bit(lot) of force to actually start clamping, what we did was used a pair of pliers to clamp it closed, then tightened the screw, they never came loose. If we used them more, we could probably expect the screws to strip

[TimmyOsborne]

Yeah the rubber ones are alot better. these dont seem to tighten properly and if you over tighten they are impossible to remove. i had to cut one of these off of my robot with a dremel

[turbodog]

You might find the issue is the shafts themselves. We’ve gotten entire PACKS of shafts that were 1) bent 2) WAY out of spec, size-wise.

Throw a good digital caliper on your shafts… you may be surprised at the inconsistencies.

[Pi_way]

@sunny05122020

It’s so bad design

Sure.

However, it’s all we got (as far as buying new ones), so we have to make do. One tip for using these to extend the life of the shaft collar is this:

Lubricate the screw threads before any use!

This will help you remove them after using them. You don't have to worry about lubricant preventing you from tightening, or vibrating loose.

Last year our whole robotics program lubricated most of our shaft collars, and the ones we lubricated are still in use… but the ones we did not lubricate now have stripped screw heads.

[John_Knox]

I came to give the same advice, McMaster hex screws are a great replacement. I also used a small left handed bit to extract the old screws from a collar and saved a couple. The problem seems to be two fold. The existing screws are a chinesium/butter alloy and the threads are pulled very easy in the collars which locks them up.