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Building a Star wars yoke from scratch
Stormy151:
Are those the gears from McMaster? I scavenged some gears for mine out of an old automatic swimming pool cleaner, I think they'll work but I haven't tried them yet...
Tiger-Heli:
--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on March 11, 2004, 02:20:47 am --- the metal y shaft looks like it has threads. these will eat away at the wood where it rest, like a saw!
you could attach a smooth metal surround piece to act as a brushing to protect the wood.
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It looks to me like there is a nut on either side holding the Y-shaft in place. As long as these are suitably tightened, I wouldn't expect a problem. You might be right, though.
--- Quote --- the cotter pins will probably wear into the wooden sides and carve into them. this may also cause the springs damage... as well as the pins comming loose or bending
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Easy solution to prevent this is a large fender washer between the cotter pin and the side support wood.
--- Quote --- the metal ends that attack to the wood arnt so pretty... in my design... i took a thick wooden dowel and drilled a hole though it. then glued the dowel to the hand grips (after sawing in the correct angle) Since your grips need a greater surface strength - you could use a simuar technique but just glue the dowels to the woodblocks. Youll still want to pop 2 or 3 micro screws into the dowel fron the woodblock side - for additional strength)
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This might look a little better, but the metal ends don't bother me. I think I would like the grips a little closer in to the side supports (shorter grip shaft length).
--- Quote --- the springs look too flimbsy. you may want heavier duty ones (thicker gauge). Also.. you may want to use a different type of spring for the x axis - as shown in the original picture (cant recall the name of those types of springs) - as they would be better to return the thing to the center properly.
the kind of springs you used will strecth out of whack in a short time period and cause the centering to be off... as well as maybe making an odd echo-ing stretching noise...
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I think thicker springs might be a good idea as well. I like the spring attachment design, though, simple and functional.
menace:
--- Quote --- the metal y shaft looks like it has threads. these will eat away at the wood where it rest, like a saw!
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no worries, for the x direction another bearing is taking the load so even if the hole widens some, the yoke will still function the same
For the y-direction--I anticipate some settling but the threads run parrallel to the wood grain and will be rotated with no (or little) lateral movement--its my hope that once they find their groove any future chages will not be appreciable.
--- Quote ---the cotter pins will probably wear into the wooden sides and carve into them. this may also cause the springs damage... as well as the pins comming loose or bending
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good ctach--this happened on my first run but have since moved the cotter pins in 1/16" keeping them from hitting the sides--In hindsight I should have used a washer and will amend the write-up to reflect this.
--- Quote ---the metal ends that attack to the wood arnt so pretty...
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true enough but the shaft will have some heat shrink tubing covering it up to the edge and the rest will be painted black to match--it will just look like another contour when done. the grips can be moved in or out depending on preference, nothing in the design would be affected by grip width.
--- Quote ---the springs look too flimbsy. you may want heavier duty ones (thicker gauge).
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Its too early for me to tell, but I hope you're wrong ;)--heavier duty springs might be needed but once the restrictors are in place they only lengthen the existing springs by 1/2" or so--easily managed by these little guys.
The 90% copy is about to be sent to tiger-heli, while I finish and test this beauty ;D
Gamecab:
--- Quote from: Stormy151 on March 11, 2004, 02:28:52 am ---Are those the gears from McMaster? I scavenged some gears for mine out of an old automatic swimming pool cleaner, I think they'll work but I haven't tried them yet...
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No. The McMaster gears are white and teeth of the gears have sharper points to them, but they are pretty close. The McMaster gears are good but the price really is not.
PacManFan:
If everybody is looking for good quality gears, don't forget about ripping apart an old printer. Every week on trash day in my neigborhood, I usually see one on the curb. Printers have lots of good electro-mechanical parts and are usually pretty easy to dis-assemble. You could use the shafts with the gears already mounted on them. I built an entire CNC router using only printer parts and a dremel .
-PMF