Quote Originally Posted by emisnug View Post
How are you protecting the main weapon gear from vertical shearing? A upwards hit on one of the teeth must put a load of shock through the robot, might misalign the gear teeth.
I wouldn't expect any vertical load on the weapon gears, the ring is constrained in the vertical axis quite well and there is a decent amount of slop between the gears. Its one reason to not use any fancy gears and go with a spur gear. It gives you the ability to have the ring move around quite a lot and keep meshing correctly.

Not sure how that would cause any vertical shearing?

As for the shock side of things, the ring is mounted on skateboard wheels which will absorb the majority of the impact and the weapon drive unit is mounted on a bunch of rubber mounts to protect the motors. This might give enough play for the gear to jump a tooth on the ring. Although it would have to move a good 6-8mm to do that.