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What type of material are you wanting to make this out of? Most of the gears you've made have been thin material, non wood. I am super cheap myself so when i can find a substitute for something or a cheap resource i try it.
Rather then going and buying a sheet of (whatever) from your source why not go down to your local Habitat store. I needed some double insulated glass for a solar hot water heater and instead of going to the glass store and buying the size i needed for over $100.00 I just went down to the Habitat store and bought a donated screen door with the glass for $10.00. They get donated flat material sometimes that they don't even know what it is.
Have you thought of using .25" corian for some of these gears? I think that would be a good material to make the gears from don't you? Why not go to a countertop company and offer to make a lithopane (let him hang it in his window at home instead of electrifying it) in exchange for some scraps. Could you make gears from .5" corian?
Have I solved your material problem now?:rolleyes: I hope so because i want to see this crazy design you are conjuring up:D
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Jack, you are too thoughtful my friend and thank you, but I'll wait until some spare $$$ is in the kitty. I wanna use PVC and I really don't need a whole sheet just now but that's what I have to buy from my supplier and I'll end up using all of it eventually. I also wanna cover the display with clear non-glare 1/8" acrylic, and that stuff is expensive!
I suppose I could call around to some friends in the sign business and ask if the have any scrap PVC and/or acrylic they would donate for arts' sake or sell for cheap! There's an idea!
I did have enough scrap to make a small prototype of the central idea of this Tempus Fugit project, which consist of 2 stacked gears of the same size (stacked directly over each other), that will rotate in opposite directions on a common axle. Solving that problem was a booger and it took me over 24 hours of head scratching to figure out the best way to do it, but the prototype works great! And there will be other complicated things going on as well (flapping wings!) that I need to noodle-out. I only wanna build this thing one time! ;)
BTW, I subscribed to this thread and get an email every time there is a reply,...that's why I'm always quick to post most everytime someone replies. It's not like I'm always lurking in this thread day and night, waiting for someone to say something, lol!
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I went down to a sign co. i do work for and he sold me a piece of PVC .75 or 1" 3'x3' for like $25.00(?)
Again, go down to Habitat and i bet you could find a piece of acrylic in a storm door (and the whole door) cheaper then buying the material outright.
Start thinking like a cheapskate!;) I got a whole load of nice figured and crotch walnut for carving a design on 3 doors for a gun cabinet for a guy and he gave me the material for the doors. It's called "horse-tradin' or bartering".
Look in the Craigslist section for "free stuff" or "materials". You would be surprised what some people give away. They don't see the value in things that i can see. You know the old saying..."One man's trash, is another mans treasure"
What's funny is i've become, what as a kid I used to make fun of. I remeber seeing old guys come by and pick up furniture and things others would throw out and we would shout "garbage picker!, Garbage picker!"
I'm now that man....:eek:
btw here is a pair of wings you could carve:
http://hobbycncart.com/news/uj_ingye...2012-03-17-389
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Haha Jack, what is this "Habitat" of which you speak?
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Haven't you heard of the "Habitat for Humanity" stores? People donate building materials (lots of it new from builders) or people remodeling and you can buy stuff sometimes 10 cents (where is the "cents" key?) on the dollar.
I have done some solar projects and bought aluminum gutters, doors, foamboard insulation, caulking, paint, paintbrushes (oh wait, i buy those at the dollar store) and lots of other stuff WAY CHEAPER then from the big box stores. Find a habitat store close to you by going here:
http://www.habitat.org/cd/local/defa...Mjg6MTUgQU0%3d
Google is your friend...:D
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I just donated about $10,000 worth of stuff on Saturday. Had a whole trailer full of new parts that I no longer needed.
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And you didn't tell us first?? Shame on you! lol:(
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Mark,
I think the question has been answered earlier in the thread but i'm kind of interested in doing something that has the ability to change directions by using something like a stepper motor:
http://www.mpja.com/email/03-20-12.asp?r=350255&s=31
but i wonder how you could program movement back and forth? I know someone talked about Audrey or Audrino (lol) but you would need to have the ability to program the movement.
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Well of course I've heard of Habitat for Humanity, but I didn't know they sold stuff sometimes. That's definitely worth checking out, and there's one right here in town. Craigs List free stuff is worth a look as well.
So you wanna do gears that reverse? Like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aobPgGzB-U
I couldn't be of any further help on that. Believe me, a complex display can be enough trouble just getting everything going smoothly in one direction, never mind two! lol
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Here's a (not very good) vid clip of my little prototype. It's hard to handle in free space so pardon the jerkiness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o30TAl-5uvI
I added some white pencil marks to try and make it more clear what's going on.
The real deal will be about 1/3 to 1/2 again larger. The center disk will be the crazy clock dial and it will spin in unison with the rear gear as shown. The front gear will spin in the opposite direction and will be engraved with "Tempus Fugit" all around it. The real deal will be colorful, of course, with other things added like funky clock hands, etc.
This set-up will be the focal point of the display, with lots of other gears spinning around it and other things going on (the flapping wings, for instance).
I guess it looks simple enough, but I had a bear of a time figuring out how to make it work right. Like I said earlier, I ain't that smart.
So the prototype works fine but has taught me that the final deal will need a little more tweaking to run as smooth and quietly as possible. But hey, that's what prototypes are for!
