High-strength axles are heavy, and I want to cut weight. One of the uses for a high-strength axle is to run it with the ladybrown mech, into gears that are screwed into metal. but I wondered if a low-strength axle would work perfectly fine.
While on the surface the HS axle is heavy, it’s so much stronger than the thinner LS axle. With a little bit of care and a positioning jig you can actually tap into the axle and then use it as a long support. As something that may cross the entire width of the robot, the HS axle is going to have less flex. For the few grams you are going to save, it’s not worth it.
It would work - for a little bit.
The reason high strength axles are used for lady browns is because of the amount of lateral stress applied to it; the lady brown has to push a ring onto a stake, then pull away from the stake and overcome the friction with the ring
… and that’s a lot to ask from a low strength axle, which will most likely bend after a few uses.
If you are going to use a low strength axle, assuming your lady brown c-channels are mounted on high strength gears, put the gears closest to the edge of the axle mount as possible (having your gears a small spacer away from whatever c-channel structure the axle is on).
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