Gear creating software

[tuck]

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

Cheap printed graphics? They won't look cheap as long as the graphics are tight, printed at high resolution, and look good. It's a way of adding a lot of color and design that would be eye-grabbing and fun with many possible themes for gears.

Don't discount print just because you have a Shopbot! One of the best signs I ever designed and made was a routed 2.5D job that was centered around exactly the kind of print I'm talking about:



The sign was 4' in diameter and the customer raved over it! I would have taken me (or anyone else), a month of Sundays to carve that image 3D and paint it, and it never would have looked as sharp as the print did! NEVER!

[myxpykalix]

YOU'RE GETTING SLEEPY....SLEEPY....YOU HEAR NOTHING BUT THE SOUND OF MY VOICE.....

[tuck]

YOU'RE GETTING SLEEPY....SLEEPY....YOU HEAR NOTHING BUT THE SOUND OF MY VOICE.....

I never sleep..........

[myxpykalix]

mARK I WAS THINKING IN TERMS OF WHAT MY CRAPPY B/W PRINTER WOULD PUT OUT (OOPPS) like above.

I remember that sign when you first made that...Follow my thinking here...how i see your sign would be to keep the center with the deer static and the outside ring of the scope and name let that revolve.

That might need some type of movement like a clock that has a inner shaft for the faster second hand and a hollow collar for a slower hour hand?

[myxpykalix]

and i thought i was the only one up nights....the only thing is i need to be back in my "sanctuary" before the sun comes up

[tuck]

mARK I WAS THINKING IN TERMS OF WHAT MY CRAPPY B/W PRINTER WOULD PUT OUT (OOPPS) like above.

I remember that sign when you first made that...Follow my thinking here...how i see your sign would be to keep the center with the deer static and the outside ring of the scope and name let that revolve.

That might need some type of movement like a clock that has a inner shaft for the faster second hand and a hollow collar for a slower hour hand?

I understand your idea, but it could get quite complex and in the end, not as amusing as "everything spinning" for a typical kinetic gear display. The idea is for everything to spin, Mr. Jarvis! lol

Here's an idea: since these are "planetary gears", design and build a motorized wall display of our planetary system with the sun in the middle, nice and bright yellow with a smiling face, and all of the planets spinning around it! Colorful digital prints of the planets sized, cut and applied to the gears could make for a dazzling and fun display!

Are you gonna make me do this?

[myxpykalix]

Steve check this out

http://www.xoxide.com
http://www.xoxide.com/cooljag-pro-flash-80mm-fan.html

[myxpykalix]

"Are you gonna make me do this?"

you mean its not done YET? c'mon man!

That might be a fun project.I don't think i want to see the gear for YurAnus

[myxpykalix]

I wonder how we can pin this thread or subscribe to it to keep it from fading way back?

Mark or Steve...i don't have it but there is a shopbot app called "Spiralizer" and a spirograph app (I think both made by Bill) that probasbly would make good designs for whirly things on the front of these gears.

Not that i want to do this but, you said you couldn't cover the teeth...well i think you can.
Think about your sculpture laying flat on the table and you are looking at it from the end. Well if your shafts holding the gears extended out past the gears at different heights you could glue your faces on the ends of the shafts and have them overlap each other which might make for a interesting visual

[steve_g]

Too much fun for an old man... The triple stack of gears in the center all move at a different rate, some double stacks rotate in reverse to each other... The whole thing is a sea of movement! I've got a clock movement coming that has an extra long shaft... It'll come out of the center of the triple stack. I'm going to redo the grid to accept threaded brass inserts and use shoulder bolts for the gear pivots... I don't have a motor to drive the gear train yet, but I'm working on it. What do you think... is the colored plastic cheap looking? Do I need to redo the gears in various wood species?

Steve