I chose to draw mechanical movement #216 in Adobe Illustrator (Figure 1). I chose this movement because I thought it was interesting that two gears on the same axis could cause the third gear to rotate in two different directions. I also thought it would be good practice to draw gears that do not have teeth around the entirety of the circle. I copied the image from the 507 Mechanical Movements website into Adobe Illustrator in order to rebuild the shapes to ensure correct dimensions. 

Figure 1. Mechanical Movement #216

First, I drew the outermost gear because I thought it would be easiest to position the smaller gears relative to the largest gear. I began with two concentric circles. Then, I tried a couple different methods to produce the teeth. First, I added an additional concentric circle that connected the innermost portion of the teeth. Then I individually drew lines connecting the circles to form the sides of the teeth. After drawing all of the sides, I tried to use the scissors tool to remove the excessive lines and reveal the shape of the teeth. But, I could not cut the right portion despite looking up multiple ways of how to do it. So instead, I drew each side of the teeth individually with the arc tool. This was frustrating because I knew that there was a more efficient way to draw the gears but I couldn’t figure it out. On the bright side, I learned what a lot of the tools do by trying these different methods.

Figure 2.  Drawing of Outermost Gear

Next, I drew the inner two gears with the same method described earlier (Figure 3). However, I drew each gear on a different layer so I could move them as units and arrange them if needed in the future. I also noticed that I had drawn an extra line at the base of the teeth for the outermost gear. If I left that line, the laser cutter (or other machine) would have cut each tooth off the outermost gear. So, I removed those lines.

Figure 3. Finished Drawing 

Overall, I think that my drawing is an accurate representation of the gears from the mechanical movement website (Figure 4). The .ai file can be found at this link. To improve my drawing, I would try to standardize the shapes of the teeth to ensure they would fit and function properly after the shape is cut out and system is assembled. Additionally, I would further explore how to produce the shape of the teeth in a more efficient manner than using the arc tool for each side.

Figure 4. Comparison of Image from Website (left) and 2D Drawing (right)

Cost Analysis:

This assignment took me 2 hours. Minimum wage in Texas is $7.25 and Adobe Illustrator costs $19.99 a month with a year long subscription. I think I should earn more than minimum wage, but I am still very new to Adobe Illustrator so I would not consider myself a professional. So, I will work at $10.00. If drawing on Adobe Illustrator was my job and I worked for 40 hours a week, 4 weeks a month (160 hours), using it for 2 hours would cost $00.12. Therefore I would charge $20.12.