This post was ghost written by Anomaly.
It seems like every day on discord there’s another person trying to create a custom linear slider, none with much success. A linear slider lift design has fewer gears, a more linear power curve, significantly less weight and size, and the potential for more height. Linear sliders also have applications on other subsystems that require a locking mechanism or a 1 time deploy. However, the steel sliders vex sells are not suitable for these applications. The biggest issue is the extreme amount of friction these parts have, but they also are heavy and somewhat flimsy. A better slider would be aluminum, use rollers or smooth metal to reduce friction, and have much less slop. Not only would this product sell well, but it would increases Vex’s educational value since elevator lifts are often seen in the real world on forklifts etc. Please consider adding this to the new parts for this upcoming year.