Working Gears?

[seanhunter79]

I am planning a little cosplay prop that I would love to have a working Gear Mechanism. Is there anyone who has experience designing working gear layouts? I need something that will raise two arms when a central point is pulled down, then lower them when its pushed up.

[rbtdanforth]

There are many gear trains out there, but my first experience was in Inkscape - Extensions - Render - Gears -(two ways to make gears) that makes all the gears mesh so all the teeth are defined at once in a layout. A very fast and easy method though less precise than might be desirable without careful layout

[eflyguy]

Can a mechanical clock be made on the Glowforge?

Ever since I got my I have wanted to try to make my own mechanical clock. After just a little research, I realized how difficult that is to do and to tune it to get it right. So, I tossed the idea on the backlog and moved on to other ideas… Now that I have more experience with my and what it CAN do, I am thinking about trying this. I know that my clock might not hold great time, or might need to be winding every day (or multiple times a day…) but I think it would look…

[seanhunter79]

Where are the extensions available from

[eflyguy]

Under the Extensions menu

[rbtdanforth]

@seanhunter79

the extensions available from

With Inkscape loaded, there is a list on the top, one of which is Extensions. Clicking on that is a long list that Render is on that list and Gear on the list that pulls down from that

[ben1]

You don’t need gears for this unless you want the esthetic. A simple four-bar mechanism or lever will do the same thing and will be much easier to design. The four-bar is if you want to add a vertical displacement between the activation point and the action point. The lever is for when the activation point and action point can be on the same horizontal line when in the neutral position.

[rbtdanforth]

@seanhunter79

a little cosplay prop

It would be my guess that Steampunk wants lots of gears no matter if they are actually doing something or not

[marmak3261]

Here’s a good topic with a few links to gear generators.

Gearify, has anybody used it?

I was going through some old links and ran across this interesting one, Gearify, and was wondering if anyone has used it before? It might be useful for those who wanted to make their own spirographs as well. [Introducing "Gearify" - non circular gear creation software. (Get the FREE demo!)] I may have to unbox that windows pc after all!

[ben1]

Steampunk doesn’t need gears; complex clockwork used levers and bars also so the Steampunk aesthetic can be maintained without the use of gears. In many of the cosplays I have seen bars and levers feature very prominently. Cogs, levers, and piston wheels are seen throughout. One could even go for a pneumatic or hydraulic system. Those have been done very effectively, especially with color dyed fluids in clear hoses.

[seanhunter79]

It actually has nothing to do with steampunk so any working mechanism will work.