What do you use on your bearing blocks?

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
#1

My team primarily uses pop rivets to hold in bearing flats i was wondering how many others use them as well

#2

we mostly use the screws and lock-nuts. mostly because you never have to worry about them falling out or coming loose. We put the locknut on the the bearing block so that we do not have any nuts sticking out on the outside of the robot.

#3

screws and keps nuts, with the nuts on the bearings so the metal doesn’t get damaged by the spiky part of the nuts. Locknuts are too much hassle if you want to be taking parts off again later, and rivets always seem to come undone

#4

You do not find that the keps nuts come loose? Keps nuts are meant to be on metal not plastic

#5

screws never loosen if you tighten them enough in the first place :wink:
of course “enough” is a relative term…

#6

the nut digs into the plastic and keeps it tight (its kinda the same principal as thread locker)

#7

exactly…if your gonna do it, do it right

#8

We always use the screws and hex nuts

#9

ya i guess. ive just always been a fan of the lock nuts.

#10

Yeah and you always have that rookie who strips the screw in the hardest place to get to.

#11

they get the job done and you should update your signature with our win at the 2011 Granite State VEX Regional :smiley:

#12

We use the pop locks mainly for convenience. Even if we lose a pop lock here or there, we’ve never had a problem with bearing blocks completely coming off. Our designs are constantly changing and we tear down our robots often so convenience is more of an issue for us. Or maybe we’re just lazy. One of the two anyways.

#13

We always use lock nuts. In initial stages of prototyping we may start off with kep nuts which are adequate but before a competition we always switch to lock nuts. It just makes one less thing to worry about.

#14

For our robot (24C) this year, we’ve been using a single screw and lock-nut on every bearing block where possible, in the center hole. We haven’t had any issues with this unless the screw is in one of the end-holes on the bearing block. Then, in high-stress situations, the plastic pieces that fit into the metal holes start to fail, causing problems.

~Jordan

#15

That’s a good idea!! I might try that sometime.

~George

#16

Over my years on 254 we used all of those methods depending on what best fit that aspect of our robot.

We used the pop rivets when we were experimenting with designs, but after we had settled on a design we exchanged them for screws and nuts.

We mainly used screws with the keps nuts on our robot because they were a lot easier to take off than the lock nuts and they held on plenty well enough. Occasionally we would use lock nuts if the keps nuts weren’t holding on well enough.

We also used zip ties a couple of time when we needed that extra millimeter.

#17

Poll is missing an option:

  • New Nut bar used as bearing block, no nuts required, delrin body acts as bearing to prevent axle wear.

Thats the theory, anyone tried it?

#18

I believe it’s on there

#19

I just use kepts nuts cause they never loosen. Its especially convenient for tight spaces that are covered up.

#20

Our team usually has no problem using keps nuts, unless a rookie only finger-tightens them, where they will come loose anywhere you put them. Ocasionally when disassembling a robot, I will find a keps nut that has been tightened so much that the star digs into the bering flat and needs to be manually removed.