Quote Originally Posted by roketrhino900
I'm moving onto the drive, what do most people to mount the motors and for custom gear boxes?
Team RCC feathers use the MSR 12-XX gearboxes (gearratio 4.5 or 6 to 1). Simple 1 stage dead axle setups. Steel gearbox plate with 5 holes in it. Speed 900 or equivalent. 12 or 15mm axle, bronze or whitemetal bushings. HDPE wheels.





Our new feather, Hannibalito 4, uses the Gimsons. I bolted these in a steel 40*40*2 L section as part of the T frame (another constant in the Hannibalito's)


I'm looking at buying a load of HDPE, it's cheap stuff. I've looked at various build diaries, but can't find enough relevant information.
George

High Density Poly Ethylene. Lighter than water. I use for calculations 0.97 kg dm³.

Very tough, virtualy unbreakable, but it can stretched untill breached.
But also soft, can be worked with wood-working tools.
The advantage here is that spinners slice a cut in it, and doesn't transfer the force as readely.

There is no glue for it.Paint peels off. Most chemicals don't even damage it. Only heat, intense UV and Benzene/Toluene/Xylene do that.

Due the softness, threading it is not optimal. Coarse woodscrews do the job, but are weak points. Ancient woodwork methodes that don't use nails or screws (dovetails, hole and dowel) are applicable with very good results. Pity there ain't a lot of good carpenters around here.

You can weld it with hot air, but the welds are weak points as these become a tad brittle. I learned to back up welds with angled metal combined with bolts and nuts.

Normal color is black or white, but colored in depth material is not unheared off.

For feathers.
For frame/monocoque 8mm is the thinnest I would use. The softness gives it a lot of flexibility. Polycarbonate is better in that respect.

10mm thickness protects against most spinners, 20mm seems unbreachable.
5mm is a fantastic dust cover. Team RCC uses it for bottom armor.