Ultrarobotman Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I searched the files on the topic of FLAT wheels on the robots. For you long-time members, I apologize for bringing this up again, as I saw an older post from Henk G. disturbed by the topic coming up so many times. And the latest discussion on this that I saw was from Mr. Rigg.In May '13 but that ref. was to a Mechanized Robby, with thin, hard wheels. Now, my question is for the standard 12" Horikawa or Metal House robot with rubber wheels- should I be concerned with having them sit upright and undisturbed for a long period or not? I did notice some of my newer M.H. bots start to get flat spots after sitting, (newer rubber?) but I have not noticed it on the vintage Super Astronauts or such, maybe because the rubber tends to harden a bit with age? (and they may have been stored laying down in the box) Anyway, mine do not stand unusually long, it is normally cool where I store them, and I'm wondering how many members here do actually have spacers under the feet of all their robots on display? If not, have you removed them from their display case lately and noticed they seemed to "stick" to the bottom of the case or have you noticed the wheels are slightly flat, which would be more obvious if you run yours. THANKS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morbius Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Good thread...I've been in the habit of rolling the wheels on most 'bots whenever I rearrange a shelf or move something. The worst ones I've encountered are on the Tomy 'bots like the flip-bot, ding-bot series where the wheels not only went flat over a fairly short time but tend to crumble away entirely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 There was a great thread on this topic, that covered so many different fixes to keep the wheels from getting flat spots. One guy here on Alphadrome was selling laser cut plastic inserts that fit under the robots feet to keep them being load bearing. Other guys were using magnets , popcycle sticks, glass slide like you use with microscopes are dirt cheep and can be stacked under the bot as well. Many other methods as well, now if you can just find the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultrarobotman Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 Thank you both Morbius and John. Great idea Morbs that I didn't think of and John, thanks to you too, I am not certain but I may have seen the older thread when I searched and saw the ideas for raising them up but I guess my main concern is, should this really be a thing we should be doing, as a normal practice that is- storing our robots up on spacers or shims and how many of us are currently doing this? I mean, if it is a real concern and it is not fixable, we may be doing a great dis-service to the heirs of our collections. With many robots in some collections, this could be a real pain in the batt-pack but it is something that I would like to address asap, but only if it is a real concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe K. Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 . Take your pick: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roboto Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 On all of the displayed robots that I have I will once every 2 months either move the legs around or add another to the display and rotate the wheels as they are placed back in there box. At times even MH had pedestals added to there long term displays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I think the worst bots for getting flat wheels are the bump and go bots. All the weight of the bot is on the two "sometimes a single wheel" small "soft" rubber front wheels and they seem to get flat spots fast. So jack up the bump and go bots for sure. Also non glass shelves might make the rubber wheels have a chemical reaction, depending on what the shelf is made of or coated with. glass seems to be safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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