Well, this isn’t so much a vex compatability thread, as a vex non-compatability thread. I ordered 8 6" drive shafts from http://www.vexstuff.com/ that were supposed to be vex compatible. Turns out that they must be slightly larger because while you can get them onto gears and wheels, the drive shaft collars do **not **fit. I cannot even get them to slide on. I have not taken this up with the vexstuff guys yet. BTW I love their story: the son spent his inheritance on buying too much vex stuff and is slowly selling it off on the vexstuff web site. Still, a drive shaft that does not work with vex collars does me no good. I’m also worried that since it is slightly larger that they will strip out the gears and wheels I pushed them into when I go back to standard vex drive shafts.
Erk, I hope this isn’t true. I got 4 each of the different lenghts… but I have yet to try them out. It would suck to find out they don’t fit.
I know its going to sound like a dumb-tarded question… but did you try backing out the set screw a little?
Yep, tried that… The drive shafts are too big to fit into the outer collar, and never make it far enough to rub the set screw. It is possible to get different drive shaft collars if I had the time to look. I saw them @ around .45c in bulk from industrial suppliers, but I don’t need $50 worth of them 
.
I ordered several very long .125" shafts from mcmaster carr, and ran into the same problem. I used a micrometer on the VEX shafts and they are not actually .125". They are more like .120"
I sanded the .125’s down a bit, and rounded off the edges. It helped, but doing this is a pain in the a**…
By the sounds of this, their “Vex-compatible shafts” are not official Vex shafts, but rather just ordinary 1/8" shaft material without beveled edges. The beveled edges are key, so if you were to take a file or a deburring tool and slightly bevel the edges the shaft collars should fit on fine.
The kid at vexstuff has filed and beveled the edges. They don’t go into the collets, period. They go into the wheels and gears stiffly, but that is it. Its great that I could sand them down and have them fit… but I paid someone for items that work with vex, not for items I could sand down myself.
I find it hard to believe that this kid who is so into Vex that he started selling stuff doesn’t know his shafts don’t go into the collets. I sent him feedback through his site, we’ll see what happens.
Hey guys. I have a neat trick. Some people probably already know this as well. You can get VEX shafts at 3 feet for about $1.90 at home depot or any other hardware store. Just get 1/8 inch key stock. It’s dirt cheap, a perfect fit, doesn’t require shipping, and can be cut to any size you want. The only thing is they’re sometimes a little greasy :rolleyes: . But they are still worth it for so little money and so much shaft.
Do the collets fit on as well?
Check out your local hardware store. They have tons of axel type parts, and are very useful as they are 3’ lengths. As of now, sadly, these axels aren’t “Vex Legal,” but maybe this will change.
MOEman365, do you happen to have the Home Depot SKU for the key stock material? Or perhaps the department where it’s found?
Here’s an update from the vexstuff guys:
Very nice people.
I got the same thing too. I’m hoping for shafts that work, but I’ll settle for a refund
All Vex Shaft has specially rounded corners, this allows it to function better in a low-friction application (such as in a bearing). To get a snug fit on this shaft, the Vex collars are sized to match this.
While 1/8" square stock will work for some Vex applications, it won’t fit in the Vex collars, and will also show some reduction of performance in some other applications.
JV
home depot’s 1/8" square rod fits collars and everything
0 3069920070 2 is the number from the barcode
As gadgetjon said, Home Depot has 1/8" shafts that work with VEX, but I will elaborate. Get the 1/8" zinc plated shafts from Home Depot, not the plain ones. The zinc plated are just like the VEX shafts as far as I can tell.
They cost $1.44 for a 12" shaft. Contrast this to $8.96 for 4 from VEX, or $2.24 for a 12" shaft before shipping. I may have to go back to Home Depot and buy a bunch! The bar code on the shaft I got was 0 30699 17770 7, Crown Bolt, INC.
Bring a gear with you to home depot to test the shaft size.
I bought some plain steel 1/8" square stock from McMaster-Carr. Very tight fit!
Mike
The zinc plated shafts from Home Depot do fit the collars as far as I can tell, but they do have sharper edges…
I had the same problem, but not with vexstuff.com. I went to my local TrueValue store and found some 1/8" key stock after running around the Quad Cities all day. Got home, didn’t fit. I tried to file the edges down but gave up. I’ll look into the Home Depot keystock, thanks. But lesson learned? If it isn’t sold directly by RadioShack or Vexlabs, then don’t expect it to work perfectly with Vex? I knew that the Vex shafts were just a bit smaller than 1/8" but I didn’t realize that the collars were so snug on there. Heh. Good luck.
did you hear that the vex stuff website is being shut down:(
why? are they shutting themselves down, or being forced to shut down?
They are being shutdown by the very people (actually their lawyers) that run this forum. Some legaleze about “protecting” their name. So fan sites will be shutdown as well if this is any indication (if they have the name in their domain name).