Drivetrains Nearing Completion

The finish line is near (or in Mike's case, behind him). Today was another long day working on the drivetrains, but things are coming to a close.

I started off by hacking through a total of six inches worth of steel axles.




Meanwhile, Mike was busy figuring out precisely where to locate each motor mount piece. This is crucial to the success of the drivetrain. We plan to shoot some addition video on this tomorrow, to supplement the drivetrain tutorial on the R2LA VI DVD. We'll probably upload it to YouTube.




Once the motor mount locations were determined, they were marked and each of us drilled ours.



Each of us trimmed the motor mount overhang on the band saw.



I worked on the chain for the drive side of each drivetrain. When it came to tensioning the chain, we decided to shim the motor away from the motor mount and closer to the gear on the wheel axle, rather than attempt to mill slots with a non-existent mill. This was a time-consuming, iterative process. Both of my motor mounts have a 1/32" shim layer between the motor mount and the motor, which provides a little slack in the chain.



Mike drilled the ankle bolt holes in his top channel. I wasn't ready to drill the ankle bolt holes just yet, as I needed to measure the holes on the existing H&A drivetrains, and have the new holes match.



By the end of the evening, Mike had his drivetrains fitting perfectly inside his foot shells. All he needs to do is trim the bottom of the battery boxes slightly, and he will be completely done. I still need to cut some bolts down to size, and have the ankle bolt holes drilled, along with needing to trim some of the bottom of the battery boxes. Getting close!