High strength axle

[R0B05H33N]

My team is using high strength axles and we want to fit two of them next to each other. Our problem is that the clamping shaft collar is too big. Are there any smaller high strength clamping shaft collars?

[langchen]

No. There is no smaller one.

[marinmersenne]

The large diameter black spacers with square centers friction fit on high strength shafts quite well and they are thin.

[R0B05H33N]

The spacers worked fine, it’s just the collar itself that doesn’t. We figured that the only way to get around it is just to scratch the idea out. Thanks for the help though!

[Connor]

You can shave roughly 2-3 milimeters off both sides of the clamping shaft collar and you should still be fine.

[Connor]

Also! You can make a very thin metal clamping shaft collar by grabbing a metal 12 tooth pinion and drilling a hole slightly smaller than the threads, so you would grab a screw and strongly screw a screw into it to create threading in the hole. Ive seen it done before, and you should be able to get one the same thickness as a low strength shaft collar by cutting it thinner.

[R0B05H33N]

Cool! Thanks for the input. We managed to solve the problem by making one of the gears a normal axle. We figured that only one axle has to be spinning, the one connected to the motor. This also meant that there wouldn’t be that much stress on the normal axle since the gear spins freely on it.

[R0B05H33N]

I didn’t realize that you could do that to a 12 tooth metal gear. I’ll try that in the future

[nickmertin]

@Connor

Also! You can make a very thin metal clamping shaft collar by grabbing a metal 12 tooth pinion and drilling a hole slightly smaller than the threads, so you would grab a screw and strongly screw a screw into it to create threading in the hole. Ive seen it done before, and you should be able to get one the same thickness as a low strength shaft collar by cutting it thinner.

Another option for making thin high-strength shaft collars is to just drill out the “normal” steel shaft collar to the same size. You need to be careful not to drill it out too much (don’t want it to be too weak, and you need to keep as many threads for the set screw as possible), but I’ve seen it work quite well.

@R0B05H33N

Cool! Thanks for the input. We managed to solve the problem by making one of the gears a normal axle. We figured that only one axle has to be spinning, the one connected to the motor. This also meant that there wouldn’t be that much stress on the normal axle since the gear spins freely on it.

If it’s not going to be spinning, you may be better off going with a screw as an axle. The green inserts spin freely on screws just fine, and you can tighten the screw to one of the sides, which makes the support a lot stronger.