One trick that I use is to ‘rough up’ the end of the metal shaft so that it sticks in the clutch better. You easily can do this by repetedly tightening shaft collers on the end of the shaft to make little indentations. It’s always better to use a lock coller on the shaft, but if you have no room, then this method can work for the right applications.
Ya if you buy the whole sale axels or the 2 foot pieces if you cut them with wire cutters into the sections you want it kinda makes barbs on the shaft the is brutal if you get scraped with it but sticks into the clutch very well and usually the clutch will come out of the motor before the axel will come out of the clutch
Yes, we are new to VEX. Thanks for all your help. We will try the suggestions.
I have noticed that none of my motors can actually hold an axle. The only way I’ve found to hold an axle is to provide some sort of mechanical block on the other end of the axle creating a wheel/gear/sprocket sandwich.
Is there anything I can do that is not permanent? ?(i.e. glue the axle on)
Thanks,
Matt
If you use wire cutters or the collars and make indentations into the axles they tend to grip better. With the collars just screw them really tight on the end and they will push in to the axle and provide little barbs that grip into the plastic. i am curious if anybody else has any other way of doing it.
This is permanent, but it would work pretty well. Glue a collar on the motor’s clutch. Then you can tighten the collar to keep the thing on. The glue (or tape) would have to be pretty strong.
To keep the axle in the motor just tighten a collar around the axle a couple of times. This makes ridges in the shaft so it stays in the motor. (I learned this on another thread, thought I should post it here.)
Lookup in the FVC Q&A , where it was explicitly stated that removing the clutch was NOT an illegal modification of motor. ie is legal
But the thread title is about wheels, rather than just axle-shafts, and replacing the clutch with a collar will not prevent a cantilevered wheel from sliding off the end of the axle. Glue is not FVC legal. Roughing up the shaft is FVC legal by my unofficial interpretation.
I have considered drill & tapping a hole in the wheel hub to use a
6-32 or 8-32 bolt as a setscrew (like the collar).
I would interpret it as legal , but it would be good to ask the Q&A.
but I haven’t asked Q&A. Using double sided support for the 1/8" axle is probably helpful to prevent a bent axle.
Didn’t answer the guy’s question- your solution will still allow the shaft to fall out of the clutch. The wheel will stay on, but as I read your post the shaft will still fall out of the motor part. To fix what you said, you would need another collar lock on the motor side of the metal mounting part. And please just relax.
The only way our team found to prevent wheels from falling off is a 2nd side rail with a lock collar in sid the two rails and another on the end of the shaft opposite the motor hope this helps and don’t forget bearings and washers they reduce the friction greatly
- Always use a clutch, your just asking to fry this pesky little motor if you dont.
- To keep the shaft engaged, just put a collar right after then a bearing then a collar then the wheel, followed by one last collar…
like this
motor–>clutch–>collar[wall]{bearing}collar–>collar–>wheel–>collar
this set up has worked flawlessly for me personally
good luck mate
raspy
just so you know, the last post in this thread was 12-27-2006 06:02 PM.
I’ve always wished the wheels themselves had their own sort of locking system, but most of them don’t have a way for a set screw to be installed, tightened or loosened. Same with the gears, to a limited extent.
I usually use a layout similiar to what is in the manual for the squarebot, with the “wheel” unsupported on the outside (but locked on with a collet) and 2 supports in the frame (more collets to keep the axel from sliding either way) followed by the motor and clutch.
I frequently bolt a servo in place w/o the clutch and then kick myself because now I have to unbolt the **** thing and put the clutch in.
Edit: Haha, I got tricked into helping to dig up an old thread 
what is a collet? do you mean shaft collar?
Yes, I did indeed mean Collar! 
The erector set has gears with set screws in them. They work well with the vex axles and vex gears.
rapinudo and dylanjkj19 both have great ideas that should solve your problem:)
MEtal and collars are the best bet