This is something that I thought that I would like to make with my Glowforge when I get it.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-Cut-Display-Gears/?ALLSTEPS
This project not only looks like fun to make, but has functional gears that work.
Cool! Bookmarked!
Likewise!
It would make a great coffee table piece. I want too!
I too have added this to my list of GF potential projects, I will have an entire screen of bookmarks soon!
I made one of these with my work laser earlier this year. It is a fun little project. It did require some tweaking as the original is wood and I used acrylic.
Oh wow! I like the blue acrylic better than the wood. That is such a nice job. Thanks for sharing.
This may very well be a day 1 project for me… week 1 certainly.
Pretty simple. Kids can do, with maybe a bit of supervision.
I expect to have it made by the time I surface from delivery to talk to people and mention my new glowforge and the fun things I plan to do with it, like this fun little toy.
One of the things I really like on this project is the more decorative use of finger joints. I really like the look of the cut edges on the front of this one. Looks a little like corner braces used on some boxes. I think most box projects that I will be glued, not made to friction fit tightly. Then I’ll use just a few finger joints to align the faces and look somewhat decorative.
I think the transparency of the acrylic makes it look super cool!
I think I posted this elsewhere, but I’ll post it here too. I made some big gears, with a laser cutter at the library. The biggest gear is 36 inches across, and is made of 30 different pieces. The whole thing is mounted on a 4’ x 8’ piece of mdf.
It’s very satisfying to turn one gear and see them all turn.
I used sketchup with a gear plug-in to design my gears. It was a lot of fun to do! I’m hoping to make more once the GF arrives.
Kinetic art–love it!
Wow. Those are incredible!
Lovely, somehow I missed seeing this earlier.
Me too, my wife really wants me to design some now lol
I actually just put them up on the wall in my house a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a video of them in action.
There is a small flaw right now. As you turn them, one of the “nuts” holding them to the wall gets tighter on one of the biggest gear, and it makes it harder and harder to turn. You have to then turn them in the other direction to loosen it.
I have to find a way of fixing that nut in place so the gear is always loose, but held in place.
Okay, that’s wonderful. It’s great to see the kids play with it! Thanks for posting!
Very cool!
Perhaps a self locking nut, or a dab of “Locktite”. I have used a center punch to “dot” the threads on a fastener I wanted to stay.
strip the bolt at that spot? Or use a cotter-pin and washer instead of nut?