General Parts Procurement

Help & Support Robot Parts
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Hello. I’m a hobbyist/beginner/beginner-hobbyist and would like to build up a supply of common parts to tinker with. It seems like every time I have an idea, I spend a day looking for the right parts and fail and give up, and every time I see someone else sharing a project I have no idea what half of their parts are, and likely wouldn’t be able to find them, or sort out the good from the bad (eg. plastic vs. metal gears etc).

I know that people use all kinds of different parts based on what they have, what they can get, or what they’ve used before, and that there isn’t likely “a set” of parts that are universally used, but I do keep seeing a lot of things over and over, and I usually don’t even know what to call things to look for them. For example, and lot of people seem to use (t-rail ??) for frames/chassis and everyone should have an assortment of M2-M5 screws/bolts and nuts/washers. Servos and Brushed/Brushless Motors and Drivers etc is a whole other can of worms.

I have a small 3018 cnc and a decent ender-3 printer, so I can make a lot, as long as it’s pretty simple to design, or someone is sharing a design. I also have an assortment of MCUs (PIC/Atmel) and some small Arduino boards and an older raspberry pi, and a small assortment of sensors that I’ve accumulated over the years.

So, the short question is, if you were in my shoes and had a couple/few hundred dollars to spend on parts, and you wanted to be able to tinker-to-learn, what would your shopping list look like, and where would you buy it? I’m mostly interested in mechanical components and motors etc, since those are the hardest for me to get my head around. Electronic components tend to be pretty easy to sort out and we all know where to find them.

I’m not opposed to kits and platforms if they aren’t overpriced, and/or limited to predefined projects. I haven’t found a kit/platform that was BOTH overpriced and limited for my purposes which is playing and learning.

Thanks in advance for any help you experienced folks can give us newbies.

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@acecase Welcome to the RobotShop Community.

For example, and lot of people seem to use (t-rail ??) for frames/chassis and everyone should have an assortment of M2-M5 screws/bolts and nuts/washers.

Normally these are aluminum extrusions in specific cross-sections like X or T and you can add the keyword “rail” sometimes. You’ll often find either manufacturers of many extrusions and won’t provide parts to connect them, or manufacturers of specific cross-sections and a variety of attachments and components.

Servos and Brushed/Brushless Motors and Drivers etc is a whole other can of worms.

So, the short question is, if you were in my shoes and had a couple/few hundred dollars to spend on parts, and you wanted to be able to tinker-to-learn, what would your shopping list look like, and where would you buy it? I’m mostly interested in mechanical components and motors etc, since those are the hardest for me to get my head around. Electronic components tend to be pretty easy to sort out and we all know where to find them.

Since you have what you need to custom-make frames and mechanics, and don’t want to go too much into electronics, you’ll still need motor controllers for each type of motor. If you want to simple get experience and don’t have a specific robot in mind, you’ll need to go “cheap” if your budget is a few hundred dollars. For example when if comes to learning about DC geared motors, Tamiya is excellent:

Example learn about worm gearing: Tamiya Universal Gear Box - RobotShop

You can also opt for a few RC servo motors of various sizes (9g, standard, 1/4 scale) and an appropriate controller.

You should also opt for a DC gear motor with encoder, a BLDC motor (and corresponding BLDC controller), and perhaps a linear actuator.

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