HDPE isn't a bad bearing material in itself, and with 20mm thickness, just drill a 20mm hole and put the shaft directly in that. If it wears out, you can put in bushings or bearings. Just make sure there is enough material all alround, otherwise it will rip trough.
I've got 15mm of hdpe, hopefully that would be enough? I might just run the shaft straight into the bulkheads and if im not happy ill press some bearings in
15mm HDPE should be fine, as should running it without bearings. Obviously since it's an axe, the shaft won't be rotating as much as it would if it was a spinner so it shouldn't trouble you really, but it will wear down over time. As Mario said, when that happens, you can then look at bushings/bearings but, to be honest, you'll probably end up moving onto a new chassis long before that happens.
Awesome thanks for all the advice
Finished bolting the wheel guards together, i had intended to finish the axe mounts but i've been called into work early. I just couldn't resist taking a picture with the axe on it though,
As others have said, this is far from a boring brick. I love the shape!
edit: also, I agree with others about it being fine just running into the 15mm HDPE. With a smooth shaft like that I don't think you'll see any wear at all across the lifetime of a robot.
The name will have to change i agree, i'm just finding it hard not to think of something predictable or too clichéd. If Tomohawk wasn't already taken i would have had that because of the shape of the axe but alas back to the name drawing board.
It's pretty tough to find a name, but what I did was just keep an eye out for cool words that pop up or song/album titles generally go well. Mine got its name from two sources funnily enough, one was an album called Hardwired and when I got round to building the thing properly the components were all hard-wired together so it couldn't be anything else really!
Either that, or try searching for synonyms on Google - I typed 'axe synonyms' in, and one of the suggestions was Abandon (from 'to axe' something) which actually sounds a really cool name, if it's not taken!
That's a great idea I hadn't thought of that, might give that a go
A quick search came up with Hatchet and I think that sounds good as a name
Edit: I also forgot to mention that i weighed the bot as it was in the last picture and it's only 6.6kg!, so that leaves me with a maximum of 7kg for the axe supports and mechanism, the scooter motor, a 30 amp electronize, the top panel and with that much weight left to spare i reckon i could even squeeze a scoop on the front.
Last edited by mrsam; 7th March 2014 at 16:12.
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