Table Toy

[francist]

It all started with a simple gear.

My latest adventure has been gear cutting, and so far so good. The gear turned out pretty nice. So I figured I'd try a rack, just for kicks. So then I had a gear and a rack, and when I rolled on on the other they made a nice r-r-r-r-r-r-r noise. And that brought to mind a product sample at my local metals place -- a short length of rack with a spur gear sitting on it. For the life of me I cannot resist playing with the thing whenever I see it! It just begs to be rolled back and forth. So I figured a slightly more elegant version might make a neat "table toy".

I wanted the wheel (gear) to roll, so I came up with a teeter-totter idea that places the gear and rack on a fulcrum. Then it kind of reminded me of one of those railway speeder cars that you pump, so I built a couple wheel stops modelled after switching yard wheel stops for rolling stock.

It works okay -- still needs some crispness softened on the gear teeth a tad, but otherwise okay. One finger on each end of the totter, the game is to keep the gear in motion without hitting the stops. It's not rocket science here, but still entertains otherwise idle hands or minds.

The gear is aluminum, the totter I think is HDPE, the fulcrum is 4140, and the stops are leaded brass.








Thanks for looking!

-frank

 

[stioc]

That's a cool little toy/project, I'll have to make one for myself now! Except my z axis is pretty limited to cut a useful sized rack.

 

[francist]

You'd be surprised. The Z on my Atlas horizontal is not great, but this piece is nigh on 8" long. With careful indexing and registry, you can double your travel by coming at it from either end. I think I re-set this rack at least four times to cut all the teeth.

-frank

 

[Boswell]

Very Nice Frank !

 

[stioc]

You'd be surprised. The Z on my Atlas horizontal is not great, but this piece is nigh on 8" long. With careful indexing and registry, you can double your travel by coming at it from either end. I think I re-set this rack at least four times to cut all the teeth.

-frank

Thanks for that tip Frank- I didn't think about coming in from the other end and reindexing!

 

[brino]

I am late to the thread, but not to late to make a couple for christmas gifts.
Thanks for sharing this!
-brino

 

[francist]

Be sure to let us see when you get yours done. Different variations on a theme are always interesting!

I've actually just started working up another gizmo, a bit more complex, but still on the gear theme. Might take me a while to get to it, but eventually.
-frank