Gearing Designs
Over the uni break I began working on the gearing for each plate so that my sculpture section will spin at different speeds. Initially I planned to simply change the number of pins on the drive shaft and external cog in the hopes that changing the ratio would speed up and slow down the rotations.
Unfortunately, after some initial modelling in Rhino, I discovered that changing the pins would create change, but a very limited amount of it. I could create 3 and 4 rotation ratios, however when trying to model 2 or 6 rotations the angles are too great and the intervals of the teeth do not line up.
I could just continue with the 3 and 4 rotations, however I have pictured a fluid, changing, spinning sculpture and I don’t think 2 rotation speeds will achieve the variation I am envisioning. My plan is to have the pieces of the sculpture lineup every 12 rotations. Why 12, well it comes down to mathematics and practicality. 12 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 which means there is plenty of variable speeds which still line up and a mutual number of rotations. Also, 12 means that the sculpture will line up often enough to be observed, but it spends majority of the time apart, which is the key element of the design.
So, back to the drawing board, I began exploring how else to gear the motor and decided the best option is to add additional cogs.
After much calculation, I’ve worked out how to model gears of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 rotations comparatively. I haven’t managed to gear 12, but it would probably be too fast anyway. This project is becoming far more complex than I initially planned and I am starting to get nervous that I might not be able to get it working. Well see how we go in the next week of so. The other benefit of the above combination of gears is that now the different speeds also spin in different directions which adds to the fluid breaking apart of the sculpture and I think will be a really nice feature!