So we recently constructed a single flywheel to shoot discs. It has a 84:12 gear ratio, and were wondering what we could do to make it more powerful.
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Make a compound gear ratio.
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Also we don’t have flex wheels
More motors. In the Nothing But Net (NBN) era teams were ganging 4 - 6 motors to get the power necessary to throw the balls across the field.
I think the discs are lighter and don’t have to travel as far so you may need less power. Also friction is the enemy. Bent axles, mis-aligned bearings, and mis-aligned steel will drastically affect performance.
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one motor should have the power needed to launch the discs properly.
But a number of factors are probably leading to your prototype’s lack in performance. Namely, the lack of any sort of compression. Flywheels rely on compression and traction with the projectile for the wheel to transfer lots of energy. Seeing as your disc is hard plastic from being 3D printed, and you’re using a pretty hard and un-compressible wheel, this is probably why the disc is being barely spat out.
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Instead of an green motor cartridge (200rpm) with 84:12. Making your total rpms at 1400. Put an blue motor cartridge (600rpm) with 84:12. Making your total rpms at 4200.
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Blue motor cartridge’s, maybe a compound gear ratio, if possible, order some flex wheels, flex wheels make flywheels so much easier, since they have more grip and a bit of tolerance.
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Can you show an example of this? I think I have the right idea but I just want to make sure.
Green is 84 tooth gear, dark grey is 12 tooth gear, light grey is flex wheel 
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@BobbyfromJamaica Try wrapping rubber bands around the flywheel this will help a lot! Also your rpm’s could be much higher. I would use a 600 rpm blue cartridge motor at a 5:1 ratio.
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You can also reduce the friction by removing metal on metal contact(shaft collars against c-channel)
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he could do the same on the others side and use a compound ratio on both sides
This might not be able to start because of the lack of torque. Also with the compression it might not be able to move.
buy flex wheels then
I am, I’m just saying until then.
from my tests, 4200rpm works really well
one motor should easily be able to power a single flywheel (and make a nice death hum!)
Because you don’t have a flex wheel RN, id recomend some squishy anti-slip or foam on the static side
Good luck!
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I don’t think this would even spin with a 600 cartridge like you mentioned, 29400 rpm is a lot
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from my quick build I found that my 600 rpm motor geared to 4200rpm will a vibrate its self apart and would over heat 
maybe just better build quality.
But do you have any secrets?
Or did you experience over heating with the motors?
Screw-in your bearings first off, this won’t help with power but will be better for many people’s sanity. And a compound ratio, like show by many people above
I was just suggesting things that he could do to make his flywheel more powerful, not all at once, the compound gear ratio is just an example because he wanted to see one.
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