On Apr 11, 7:51*pm, Tim Wescott wrote:
On 04/11/2011 04:26 PM, Searcher7 wrote:



I came up with a new design for a video game joystick. The problem
with the original design that I am attempting to improve upon involves
wear of the metal parts that move across each other.

My goal is to A) create it so that the parts that move against each
other are inserts that are easily replaceable. And B) increase the
wear resistance through use of a better metal.

The action of the up/down joystick causes wear at the end of a rod
that turns inside of a matching diameter hole.

If you look at the picture of the joystick assembly in this link, you
will get an idea of what I'm referring to.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l.../Joystick%20Pr...

I know that the easily machinable metals tend not to be wear
resistant, but I'd appreciate ideas on the best metals to use for
something like this. Metals that I can machine on my mini lathe or
mini mill.

Normally you achieve wear resistance by running a hard metal against a
softer one, or a metal against plastic. *Smooth surfaces are a must.

If you make one part out of steel that's hardened and polished, and the
mating part out of teflon or nylon, you may be quite pleased at the wear
life. *Make that second part out of brass or bronze and you may be
pleased at the wear life, but a bit bummed at the price.

Can you machine what you want out of unhardened steel, then harden it
and do your final sizing on a whetstone? *Or can you use hardened shaft
material that just needs to be cut to length?

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Serviceshttp://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details athttp://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

I thought using "hard on soft" was intended to only increase the wear
life of one side. The soft side would have to be replaced on a more
frequent basis. And more often than when using "hard on hard".

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.