Scrambler B

[ChrisYim]

Ok, now i have a very stupid question. (in my opinion, i think) what is a threaded axle?

[Pleiades]

It's like a screw. Actually, most of the time it is a screw.

[bob3443]

its basicly a screw without the top part of it. its a piece of metal or that has indents in it that go around and around and end up going in one direction.
also last year i used cd's what i did was i got 2 washers that fit right on my axle, then i put a washer on each side of the cd, then i just slid it onto the axle and put a nut on each side of the washer/cd's. if you do this, make sure that your cd is centered or it won't go smoothly. i'll try to get a pic if you don't get what i mean.

[ChrisYim]

Thank you~ it'll help a lot. (now that I know what a threaded axle is, i can start building!!!)
Finally I can start building!!! Yay yay yay yay yay....etc.

[Dark Sabre]

I uploaded some pictures to the gallery of 2007 scramblers people added to last year's thread:

http://sciolyor.ipower.com/4images/cate ... ?cat_id=15
http://sciolyor.ipower.com/4images/cate ... ?cat_id=16

Definitely worth a look.

[bob3443]

maybe i'll try a brake pad one day. also i thought that we weren't allowed to use springs???

[Dark Sabre]

Well, you can't use pre-charged springs to propel the vehicle (you could use the falling mass to give the springs energy and then propel the vehicle with the springs).

You can however, use "additional sources of mechanical energy" to help stop. Hence the use of pre-charged springs for braking. Check out 2.b. and 2.c. in the rules for the exact wording.

[bob3443]

2.c. is sort of confusing. it says that the falling mass may be transferred to other energy storage devices. then it says additional sources of mechanical energy may be used to stop the device. so does the spring have to be in the lowest energy state when the run is initiated? or can it have stored energy when the run is initiated? I'm pretty sure last year in my regionals no one used springs.

also what brake pad method do you think is better? the one on the wiki or the one in the pictures?

[Dark Sabre]

If you are using the spring to make the vehicle go forward (propel it), the spring has to start in the lowest energy state. You could use your falling mass to add energy to the spring and then release that energy for propulsion...if you wanted to.
If you are using the spring for braking, the spring can start in any energy state, so you might as well start them at their highest.

A video of Notochord's brakes

Here were two pictures of the brake pad scrambler I built, courtesy of teamscrabler:

As you can see, I opted for pneumatics instead of springs.

Regardless, if you have not already, build a plain wingnut scrambler before you try any of those. They are very interesting and garner lots of questions at competition, but may not work better (mine, for example) than your basic wingnut .

[bob3443]

i've already built a wingnut scramblerso i'm going to start building a brake pad scrambler.
wouldn't a brake system using springs be much easier to build and also work better?