Who wants some free robot wheels?

So I've been trying to think of clever ways to market RobotBox. One of my ideas was to create some robot wheels, since making wheels is always a difficult process for many hobbiests. It's difficult to find perfectly round items, and to get things perfectly mounted to their center. So, what better way to show off RobotBox than to give away some free wheels with our logo and URL on them? Even better, since I have access to a laser cutter at TechShop RDU, I can cut them out of acrylic. 

You can find a link to get some of the RobotBox Robot Wheels on the part page. To create them, I drew them out in Adobe Illustrator. Getting the servo spline the correct size was the most difficult part. I decided to have them mate to Futaba-style servos - they have 25 teeth on the spline - rather than the Hitech style servos, which have 24 teeth. I drew a "star" shape in Illustrator them sized it according to some measurements I took with a caliper. Unfortunately, I didn't know what the kerf, or cut size, of the laser was, so that needed quite a bit of a trial and error to get right. But, now that I've got it, I can print/cut as many of them as I have time for. Right now they're 1/4" thick, which I think is a little thick, so I might switch to 3/8th's next time I cut. Another thing to note is that in order to secure them to the servo spline, a washer will probably need to be put between the wheel and the screw head. The wheels are actually pretty tight as-is, but if you want some extra security you'll need to do this.

Here's a video of the wheels being cut. Sorry the reflection was so bad, but lifting the lid will shut off the cutting laser (good!).

Send me an email or comment on the post to get yourself a pair!