Doug, That is just fantastic. I thought about the attachment chain route and decided if I could make it work with standard roller chain it would be the better way to go. I also thought about a two part tread. The base and insert. That would allow me to make different inserts and people could use them in different ways. I have been working with several injection molding companies. The one I am planning on working with is willing to overmold my tread around some threaded studs. The studs would add rigidity when the rest of the part is rubber. I also talked with them about creating the mold in such a way that only the top part of the mold would need to change to make a different tread profile.
My design does require you to disassemble the roller chain which is a huge pain in the butt. lol. However, that is not my plan past the prototype stage. I have talked to a few roller chain companies about selling me assembled chain without the pins. Then you just assemble the parts as a kit. They seem willing provided I need more then a handful of parts. Worst case, I have a plan for a machine that would feed roller chain in and it would push out the pin with a pneumatic cylinder. I could automate the process. But I really think getting the chain parts will not be a problem. What size chain is that? I am curious what widths people are using. I tried to keep my design modular and scalable. I did all the 3d modeling with parameters. So you can pick the size chain and the width you want. I have prototypes for #35, #40, and #50 chain. The widths are currently 3", 4" and 5" respectively. Josh On Friday, February 6, 2015 at 11:14:27 PM UTC-5, RocketMan wrote: > > I’ve been working on something very similar, but I went the attachment > chain route. It can still be driven with standard sprockets, but it’s more > expensive and harder to get than roller chain. To attach your grousers to > the roller chain, do you need to disassemble the chain ? > > > > I’ve been working in two different sizes. There’s a rubber strip that > covers the bottom. Here are the prototypes: > > > > > > > > I resin cast a full set of the larger tracks and put them on my tank, Bad > Kitty. It’s been through a few battles with them now, and they’ve performed > great. I can go over terrain where other tanks simply cannot and I believe > it’s due to the tracks in large part. I need to keep the tension a little > higher than I’d planned, but there are no track-throwing problems. > > > > > > > > Steven Morgret, an R/C Warship aficionado and entrepreneur known to a lot > the R/C tank group, injection molded me a set of the smaller tracks. A > photo is below. He just mailed them yesterday and I can’t wait to see them > in person. It looks like he did a really outstanding job ! > > > > > > Here’s the new tank I’ll test them on. The hull is mechanically finished. > I just need to wire it, add tracks, and try everything out. > > > > > > > > > > - Doug > -- -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R/C Tank Combat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
