Hi,
I am looking for some wheels for my robot.
Could you give me some hints of online shops which provide these items (especially European shops, because of shipping ;) ).
Thank you.
Best regards,
Chris
- posted
19 years ago
wheels for robots
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- posted
19 years ago
How heavy is your robot? What sort of surfaces do you expect it to run on? Just some of the questions that need answering...
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- posted
19 years ago
If you need small, light weight robot wheels, you can get a lot of different sizes, styles, and types from RC airplane or hobby stores. They have them in soft foam, hard foam, hard plastic, inflatable rubber, etc. Many larger robots can use the wheels sold for lawnmowers or small tractors. I have used lawnmower wheels on larger robots with no trouble. For toy wheels, buy toy cars at a close-out and you will be able to remove and use them- cheap and simple. The largest difficulty for new robotic hobbyists is getting some sort of adapter or connector for the wheels. If you have a drill press, you can often fabricate wheel hubs or mounts from a small bit of tubing or rod stock by drilling axially for the shaft and one radial hole for a set screw or pin.
Cheers!
Sir Charles W. Shults III
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- posted
19 years ago
Hello Chris,
If you are building a larger robot then I would checkout any local suppliers that sell castors. There are quite a few brands (Colson is great) that are perfect for larger robots. You can get them with regular black rubber or a non marring grey rubber compound which is great for indoors. The HERO
2000 used a pair of them for its drive base and they are also popular among BattleBot builders. If you are not too far from a shop that sell them see if you can stop by and see what they have.Good luck,
Robert
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- posted
19 years ago
Absolutely true!
I got some great advice from Gordon McComb awhile back. Buy gear blanks from Stock Drive
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with the desired bore for your axle. I then use a numbered drill bit that tightly fits into the smaller of the 2 bores (the 2 bores being the wheel and the gear blank). Build up the diameter of the drill bit for the larger bore using masking tape or another type of tape. This will perfectly center the gear blank on the wheel. Now drill 4 holes through the wheel and gear blank for mounting screws.
BRW
Good idea. However, I've tried this many times and had pretty poor results.