Hi there everyone,
I recently created a Two-Piece Clamping Shaft Collar as my entry for the VEX Make it Real CAD challenge. The motive behind this part was my previous frustration with the current VEX shaft collars.
This was my first real experience with CAD modelling, and so I sought to use it as a learning experience, both in terms of the actual modelling and the writing of the report.
To that end, I was wondering what the community thought of the idea. Any criticism, comments, etc, would be greatly appreciated. The link is shown below if you would like to view the entry.
Speaking for myself, this would have saved me the hassle of completely disassembling entire mechanisms.
Also, it would be so much easier to do this than to try and not drop spacers off the end of your shaft as you attempt to slide on a regular shaft collar.
Thanks so much for your kind words!
I’ve also had to disassemble and reassemble components in the past to get to a hard to reach shaft collar. That is one of my frustrations with the current VEX Shaft Collar product offerings, and I tried to keep it in mind when designing this part.
Cheers, thanks again!
That’s a really cool design. Collars are the worst enemy of our team and coming up with new designs is great. I was wondering how well this worked in tight areas like near nuts and screws. I ask because currently we are just replacing the collar screw with a regular screw. But the screw hanging out is prone to catching on other screws and nuts near the collar.
In the case of tight areas, one might consider Standoff couplers. These will be recessed within the screw pockets of the shaft collar because they lack screw heads. The lack of screw heads also ensures that there is nothing sticking off to the sides on the top of the shaft collar.
If one faces other constraints besides small spaces, one might want to consider other #8-32 screws, such as Star-Drive screws to prevent stripping, Locking screws to maintain tightness, etc. All screws that are 1/2" long and have a threading of #8-32 should work with the Two-Piece Clamping Shaft Collar.
It looks like I’ve qualified as one of the finalists for this challenge! I’d like to thank everyone that posted here for their comments, and complement all my fellow competitors for their hard work and dedication!