Gear Radius Plate alignment

The new steel plates for the gear came back from the laser cutters. I had them resized to fit the radius plates from Grove, which were 1.5″ wide, not 1″ wide. The first thing was to trim the radius plates themselves down to the right length, clean up the edges, and then drill holes to line up with the steel plate. I read somewhere that the radius plates are not strong enough on their own, since they are aluminum, and since there’s a lot of load here, I decided to just double up and use the original steel plates as well. This might be overkill (and sure it heavy), but it will work for now. I went slightly thinner on the steel plate – 6mm instead of 6.35mm but that will make no difference really. This should be plenty strong.

Drilling the holes in the radius plates to match the steel plates was easier than I thought it would be. I clamped them in the drill press, added some cutting oil, and just pushed the drill bit through – came out well, although was time consuming. I then brought out the gear and hoisted on a ladder and tested the new system out. Fitted perfectly.

After this I did they tough looking drill hole through the spring gear itself, aligning up with the thin aluminum clamp plate. It was tough as hell, but after I decided to runn a small pilot hole through, it went quick and easy as well.