The wheel of happiness and fun

For our second homework we were asked to take a series of sketches and proportions of a woodwork machine and convert it to a 2D vector drawing in vector illustration program. I choose a gear system that would move a series of wooden teeth when spun.

Wheel schematic

From sketches and diagrams I created a series of parts using Adobe Illustrator.

Wheel sketch Cog Diagram

These proportions (the first one being 2 squares per inch and the second being four per an inch) helped as I used the ruler and guidelines tool in Illustrator (absolutely lifesaving!). I also ended up using the circle and rectangle tools to create the basic shapes of the bottom and gears. The arch on the large back portion and the sides of the handle and handle connector was done with the arc tool. The “teeth” of the gears and the bottom piece are made of rectangles with the top side rounded out. The bottom of each “tooth” is then  whited out with the brush tool set to white. There are several dowel pieces I choose not to include in the illustrator file.

The only problem we might have with this AI is that the handle is a round object (as you can see in the colored diagram). I considered adding more pieces that could be glued onto the top and bottom of the handle portion to make it more 3D but will instead consider adding it for the midterm project.

Bottom Pieces

Cog and Ect

Back Wheel

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