Yesterday we did some cutting and fitting and some rough assembly. Today we started doing final assembly on some of the parts of the drivetrain. Final assembly includes fun activities such as lightly sanding and lubricating shafts, Dremeling out and cleaning flanges, and sanding key stock.
Sparks! Mike is not cutting the keyway here, he's just clearing some debris that was stuck in the keyway in the axle.
Here is the mysterious keyway in action. A slot is cut into both the axle and the gear. A segment of 1/8" square rod is placed into the slot on the axle, and the gear slides over it, locking the gear to the axle. This way, the gear won't ever slip. Set screws on the gear also help hold the gear onto the axle.
Likewise, the Delrin ring inside the wheel hub also has a keyway cut into it, and this locks the wheel onto the axle as well. A washer is located on each side of the wheel, inside the drivetrain body. The washers virtually eliminate friction as the wheel turns inside the drivetrain.
This looks a lot like yesterday, but yesterday was mainly prep for today. Today we now have the keys in the keyways, the wheels and washers installed, and the large gear mounted.
The motor mounts are probably the next item of business. These will be tricky, because we need to get everything to fit into our existing foot shells and battery boxes.
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