That is a great looking little device. Makes me think of the old train engines, though in reverse. What are the new wheels? Are they still delrin plastic, or some other material? While I am ok with the performance of my router at the moment, the most flexible part so far is the wheels. So having a better option that can still run on my C-beam rails might be worthwhile. -D
Very interesting. Please keep me posted on how it goes. If it works with your long term wear test, I might like to get some bronze wheels from you.
Nice apparatus but without the wheels carrying some kind of load I have to question the validity of the outcome. An unburdened wheel should run pretty much indefinitely.
The problem is how do you quantify preload? Is it 2 pounds? 5 pounds? What? You might consider tipping the apparatus sideways and hanging a 10 pound weight on it (5 pounds per wheel) and that way you can show these wheels are good for say 50,000 cycles at a 5 pound loading... (Not aiming to criticize here, just wanting to see results a little more in line with scientific methods.)
Hey http://www.openbuilds.com/members/barry-danks.43092/ It's just that Ikea used to have all these Rube Goldberg contraptions for testing furniture, your setup just reminded me of those is all. It was a joke... MG