December 27th 2002

I managed to assemble the axle/wheel/motor sets today.
I started with the wheels that will have the nylon gear attached. The first wheel was slid on to the axle, some loctite adhesive was applied to the axle and the wheel pushed up to the step in the axle (make sure the keyways are lined up so that a key piece can be tapped in place later). Here I made use of my lathe and mounted the axle with the wheel up against the 3 jaw chuck and the other end of the axle centred on the tailstock. This keeps the wheel true on the axle, I hope! When set, the nylon gear can be attached with the 5mm bolts. (I was a little concerned that over tightening the bolts could possibly distort the gear, so I placed some washers over the bolts between the gear and the wheel and then tightened the bolts.)
The motors were assembled following the instructions, this can be a bit fiddly, I found it easiest to mount the motors in the brackets (get them the right way round and up!) tighten the nuts enough to hold the motors and then slide the gear/axle assembly in to the bearings. carefully mesh the gears by moving the motors slightly. The remaining wheel can be fitted after trimming the lower motor bolt to clear the wheel ( a washer was needed between wheel and motor mount to limit the side play). I used the lathe again to hold the wheel square to the axle while the loctite set. (This was not 'fool proof'! One wheel still ended up with a slight wobble, not enough to worry about, though)
I will put the keys into the keyways when I am sure that the wheels don't wobble. It will be almost impossible to get the wheels off once the keys are in place.