My First Gear Train

[cthor]

Hi all,

Here's my first gear train. Super simple in terms of gears, but a lot of fun to build. It's part of a larger project and it's more aesthetic than functiona l, but the gears do turn.


You can see more pictures and specifics here. http://www.thecncgarage.com/Stirling/Base.aspx

Enjoy,
Chris

[bosr]

Cool, nice work.

[cthor]

Thanks bosr!

[ArtF]

Nice craftsman ship.. I love the attention you paid to details..

Art

[cthor]

Thanks Art . You've made another great software package!!!

[BobL]

Chris;

 Wow that looks awesome.. .I like the way you pocketed the gears themselve s...Well done

Cheers
Bob

[cthor]

Thanks Bob 

I'm very fortunate to have access to a laser engraver. The pocketing you see was the first phase of the engraving process. In the first phase, the laser rasters back and forth over the work and engraves any of your artwork onto the piece. In that mode, it's a lot like an inkjet printer and it can get up to 1200 dpi, so you can get pretty fancy if you want. In my case, I just went with a solid fill inside the gear which resulted in the pocket you see. Once it's done the engraving operation, it switches to vector mode and starts cutting.

I've also been playing with another engraving mode they call 3D mode. This mode works with grayscale fills to achieve a form of relief carving. It's tricky, but I think I have it dialed in. I have another gear project in mind that will utilize that mode. I'll post some pictures when I have something to show. 

[ArtF]

So those were all laser cut gears?? Wow, very nice..

Art

[cthor]

Yup!  Apart from the brass posts, the entire thing was done on the engraver. If you follow the link just below the picture in my first post, there are some pictures of the laser in action.