Hexabot: Upgrade

Well, it's been a little over a year since Hexabot was completed, and I've finally gotten around to making this Instructable which features work done only a few months after Hexabot's completion.

The robot got a lot of use by enthusiastic riders in a few months (among them was my young cousin who drove it back and forth for hours when I brought it home over Christmas break), and this led to discovery of a few design flaws.

This project was funded directly out of my pocket, so in the interest of saving money I skimped on a few things. One of those things was not adding bushings to any of the rotating joints. It soon became apparent that the main drive linkages weren't going to last long without them. This Instructable is going to show you what you need to do repair them.

Step 1 The Damage Done

The drive linkages are machined are made from aluminum, and the drive axles are steel bolts. Steel on aluminum contact is pretty high friction, which combined with the bolt thread's small contact area lead to some heavy wear on the aluminum.

Also, the steel legs rubbing on the drive bolt did some hefty damage to the threads. The steel on steel contact isn't that much of a concern to me at this time, so I'll only be focusing on the aluminum-steel interaction.

Comments

[verticalfuzz]

 excellent work! i recognized this little bugger immediately!
-Harrison