Gear creating software

[steve_g]

Oh Yah... A big hit
(papa got a surprise spring break visitor)

[myxpykalix]

The gears on the table were not the only gears turning! I can see the gears turning in that mind trying to figure out different combinations
That's why we do what we do

[tuck]

Steve - that is so cool to see what you did for your grandson! Now let's see you do one for yourself,...motorized!

We're all kids, to one degree or another.

[steve_g]

I've actually been thing about an idea using lots of moving parts and a clock. Of course the implication will be that the Rube Goldberg devise is involved in the time keeping, but in fact there is no connection between the two. kind of like the pendulum of most battery clocks today.

Steve

[tuck]

I've actually been thing about an idea using lots of moving parts and a clock. Of course the implication will be that the Rube Goldberg devise is involved in the time keeping, but in fact there is no connection between the two. kind of like the pendulum of most battery clocks today.

Steve

Yeah well,... I say the crazier the better! Again, it's only limited by your imagination and problem-solving skills.

My next one is planned in my mind and it's gonna be nuts, but I don't know when I can get to it.

I liked the way you thought out the stacked gears, Steve. My hand-cut prototype of 20+ years ago had stacked gears and it really adds to the "motion of the ocean".

I really like the idea of shoulder bolts suggested in this thread as well.

Imagine it,.....and you can do it!

[myxpykalix]

Steve, Mark,

The Rube Goldberg-ish movement was kind of what i had in mind when i was talking about making the tongue move up and down within a carving i had in mind.
As i am drifting off to sleep i lay there and try to visualize in my mind how to make each part or how will they interact with each other. Not only wanted to show gears spinning but instead of just using gears why not use carvings on the face like a compass face, clock face, sun, moon or other 3d carvings on the face of the gear or glued to the front to hide the teeth.

If anyone would like to collaborate on a project i'd be interested in making something that could be driven with a small motor. Maybe we could collaborate to make something then share it with all.......(nah, screw em we'll keep it for ourselves!)

[myxpykalix]

I was thinking about this also.... remember those flat plastic chach-ki's that you might get in a cracker jack box that had say a picture of a pair of lips when you looked at it from one angle and moved it to another angle and you might see a bunch of teeth? What are those called and where could i find something like that?

[tuck]

Jack - hiding the teeth is a novel idea but not possible. You could hide the gears, but not the teeth themselves. It can be done with only the teeth showing. They need to mesh with nothing in the way. Your idea has real possibilities for extended graphics applications that could be tons of fun. If I were gonna go that way, here's what I would do: I would cut gears with no center designs since you won't see those anyway. Just cut plain simple gears with teeth. Next, design colorful/whimsical centers of whatever amuses you and that can be printed by your local sign company on a digital printer that can cut shapes (circles), and apply the self-adhesive vinyl prints to your gears. Do you understand?

Oh man, now you have me thinking in a whole new direction. Way to go, Jack. lol

[myxpykalix]

following up on your "no centers" idea...Rather then put some cheap printed graphic in the center why not do this...

Why not cut your gears so that on the face of the gears the struts are inset say about .25" so that if you were looking at the gear laying flat it would look like a bowl shape.

Then take carving of various things that you could insert into the bowl shape so you could interchange different carvings or rearrange them to come up with different designs?

If you were thinking of making these and selling you could standardize the gears and change the faces for different designs

[steve_g]

printed by your local sign company on a digital printer

Hypnotic spirals?

I have a bunch of RGB LEDs left over from a business venture I sold... I'm thinking there aught to be a way to have a ring of LEDs on a gear that change color as it turns. I'm thinking old school contacts here, not sensors and microcomputers.

Steve

Jack... I'll collaborate any way I can...