Wheels

[thebeardedone]

More of a rant than a request for help ... still.

How troublesome is it to find suitable wheels for antweights? On my mini-sumo, I made the wheels out of a cap that I found, but I thought, for my ant, that I would purchase some nice high-quality ones ... weight dependent, of course.

You see that is the crux ... weight. I found some perfect aluminium miniature tires. How much did they weigh? 28g each. There is no way I can afford to assign 56g to the wheels. My servos alone (3 of them) came in at 57g, which leaves me 93g to the armour, wheels, battery, mixer and any fixings that I decide to use. Well, I decided to look at another pair made by tamiya. These weighed 25g each ... hardly better

I shouldn't really complain as I am quite enjoying myself sourcing low weight components. I am looking through the 'Resource' pages now for any sites with a good selection of wheels.

May even just make some more yet ... I saw about the dycem which looks interesting to say the least.

Kind Regards,
Sam

[bitternboy]

If you have any lego wheels lying around they work perfectly, normally you can modify it somewhat to fit the motor/servo. I also bought these
Treaded Rubber 45mm diametre Wheels http://www.technobots.co.uk/acatalog/Sh ... s_391.html
They worked very well, grippy and with a diameter suited to my needs.
Just a suggestion but I thought it must be worth mentioning considering there're only 11g.

[thebeardedone]

Thank you, bitternboy. That is a useful link.

I also came across this site (http://www.robotcombat.com/products/whe ... eight.html) in the 'Resource' section. Anyone had a chance to use any of the foam based wheels?

Regards,
Sam[/url]

[James]

if you want to make wheels then using bottle lids with dycem wrapped around as a tyre work well

this is what 2 of my ants use as they are lighter than most of the wheels you can buy (my milk-bottle lid wheels weigh about 4-5g each )

[joey_picus]

Personally I've never had any issues with finding wheels, although most of the ones I've used have been designed to fit gearmotor shafts so I can see why you'd be frustrated, most commerically available servo wheels I've seen don't seem to have been designed with light weight in mind

What I've seen done often is cross shaped servo horns bolted to circular plastic with grip added - milk bottle tops seem to work really well as James's said, but I've seen airplane wheels, sofa cups, deodorant tops, little circular servo horns themselves, and homemade wheels made with holesaws used.
As for the foam wheels I think Craig Danby (Anto 3) has used them in the past, they seem to be popular with US antweights so they must be some use?

[Team Terror]

I often have difficulty finding the right wheels

[thebeardedone]

Well, I am going to purchase some of the foam wheels and hope for the best

I will find a way of making them fit the servo, my main problem was the weight of the things

Regards,
Sam

[alasdair]

I have had a major problem with wheels. I bought some 47mm pololu ones off technobots, and attatched some hubs that fit the motor using areldite. Dont know whether it has worked though...

[thebeardedone]

Hmm. I am planning on moulding my own tyres now, looking around the web for DIY moulding and I think that I have come up with a good idea.

I was planning to use urethane rubber but seeing on how difficult it is to get hold of small quantities, I am going to use silicone rubber RTV instead. I am designing them so that they can easily be mounted to a 3mm shaft or to a servo horn. I'll let you know how they turn out

EDIT: That was another thing I was going to ask. Has anyone tried using the self-fusing silicone tape as a wheel coating? It is about the same price as the dycem tape.

Regards,
Sam