Roll on the 20th June

[sm0ky2]

Edpsx
Rollerblade or skateboard bearings work great.

actually, im going for the whole "almost no friction" deal.. skate bearings are made for a heavy load, and have a LOT of friction. the bearings i ordered are designed for speed/precision, and have hardly any friction at all.    i couldnt find any hydrostatics like the HD bearings use, those would have been great, but these were cheap (70cents/ea) so they'll have to do. should be ready to continue working in a few days when they arrive.


@ artist-guy

that's an interesting way to deal with the rotation problem.  still tossing that part around, dusty's wheel had that problem too.  im sure all that friction isnt helping

notice from Dusty's 2nd video, that the faster the rod can slide up, the faster the wheel turns.
This is why i want to have as little friction on the rods as possible. so the magnets are able to interact freely.

[exxcomm0n]

@ Artist_Guy

Nice build man.

I see you're using the 1 arm model.

redriderno22 suggested the 1 arm wheel to me, and it really helps you focus on where the "sticky bits" are.

Yours looks like it'll glide smoothly and evenly.

Keep at it. Even if just for an amusing hobby.

@ Dusty

Excellent to see you're still in it and I REALLY like the attitude!

The ghetto version to fix the digging of your wheel plywood:

Get some aluminum flashing or very thin sheet steel and cut pieces of it to place under your orientation "keeper" (the part that's digging, and make sure you equalize sheet piece  weight approximately), fasten with screws or glue.

Make sure to grind (to) round (shape) corners and edges on the orientation "keeper", cause a curved surface slides easier than a flat or pointed one. You can use it for weight equalization too.
Be careful about how this effects weight as 1 gram might not matter that much, but 3 grams will.

The intensive version:

Embed a roller bearing under each side of the "keeper" to kill the flex of the gravity extension. This gets into fine measurements and machining.
But if you get lucky and drill all the right depths for the bearing axles, you can probably do it with a hand drill.

Downside is you nearly have to strip all the way down to do it.



EDIT:

It just occurred to me why the rod friction is so important.

It's where the energy comes from.

What I mean is it's the varying weights of the arms are causing the spin of the wheel.

They are as important as your car wheel bearings, and do the same thing, in reverse...sorta.

[Rusty_Springs]

Well, I'm back with two updates.  Don't hold your breath, they are just showing a little more progress.  At this point I'm just going to wait till the 20th to see what I'm missing to make this wheel work.  I'm having fun building Archer's idea.  The whole thing was built with scrap material laying around the shop, so no big loss in costs if it never pans out.  I think alot like Clanzer in that I'm just having fun and if it works, great but if not I'll move on to something else.  I spent the last three years building machines for Butch LaFonte and we never really got anything to work, although I think we were very close a few times. Butch is one of the best I've every known, he is quite an inventor.   I think one of the biggest kicks I get out of all this is the anticipation of is it or isn't it going to work.  I think any builder out there will know exactly what I'm talking about.  Anyway, I'm having fun!

Thanks, Mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nfze6spgG4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeozyH9m27A

Hi Mark
Thats a great biuld mate, it works the way I thought it would but that takes nothing away from your biuld and the work you did.
Take Care Mark
Graham

[Alexioco]

Hey the wheel looks great and some work has gone into that, we can learn from this wheel but i don't think we have a runner I'm afraid to say...

Springs are good for lifting as when they bend  to a certain degree they cause weights to fly upwards...

[Rusty_Springs]

Hi All
There is one thing that will make it work as I have said before but it womt make it OU and thats an electromagnet which is what Archers design had right from the beginning of this thread.
If Archer goes to design he will show you a working wheel but it will be with an electromagnet.
Take Care All
Graham