Note how the wheels are
attached to the servo horn.
The finished motor/
wheel assembly.
The assembly of the
SpindleBot version 2 base.
and provide excellent traction. There are normally three of
these pressed onto the rear shaft in the printer. Removing
them isn’t hard. The method I use is to open a vise just
slightly wider than the shaft, and then use a hammer to
drive the shaft out. Once you’ve liberated the wheels, they
are screwed and glued to the servo horn. It is easy to find
used inkjet printers very cheap or often free. There are also
many other useful parts such as optical sensors, encoders,
The bottom of the version 2
robot (before power switch
and charger jack).
Low profile servos used on V2 and newer SpindleBots.
etc., that can be re-purposed. Pull one of these printers
apart and see what you can re-use!
NOTE: To make it easier to mount the wheels to the
servo horns, I picked up a pair of Futaba horn drill gauges
(part numbers FUTM2400 and FUTM2401) which helps
ensure that the spacing for the holes is correct.
In order to keep the center spindle in place, it wasn’t
going to be possible to use standard servos. Luckily, there
are a variety of servos available. The solution was to use a
pair of low-profile Aileron servos for the drive. They are just
short enough to provide the clearance needed to keep the
center spindle. They are secured to the base with double-sided tape and cable ties like the first robot. For the main
drive wheels, I used some of the large feed rollers from an
SERVO 04.2012 49
