For this project, I started with Mechanical movement #120, mostly because it was just a cool-looking system.

My next step was to create a file, which created a bit of a difficulty. I started by ignoring the pincers, assuming that I would leave them for last and maybe make them out of metal. Using gear generator, I created the concentric gears, and the large gear above. I then cut out most of the large gear, leaving only a segment, which created the wedge-shaped top gear. However, the curved rack at the bottom proved more difficult. Thankfully, as large as it was, the teeth were almost trapezoidal, with none of the curves that smaller gears may have. This meant that I could essentially take the negative of a large gear to make the rack, and add some support to connect it. From here, I started my rough draft, which I boldly cut out of wood, assuming that the real thing I was testing, the teeth of the gears, wouldn’t work on a cardboard draft. Thankfully, it came out quite well.

The only major problem with it was the fact that the outer rack was too loose at the bottom and too tight at the sides of its arc, which told me that I had messed up the radius. So, after some corrections and some artwork, I made my second draft, which only changed the elliptical rack and added a cardboard rough draft of the base I was going to use.

The laser cutter wasn’t cutting all the way through the wood, and the rastering was too light, so this elliptical rack didn’t end up being the final draft I was planning on. However, once the laser cutter was fixed, I decided I was ready to start working on the final draft. I started with the concentric gears, but the laser cutter stopped working again; it wasn’t cutting all the way through the wood on the vector passes, even after 3 passes at 2% speed, which left crispy edges, some misalignment, and the incomplete cut shown below.

This invited me to work instead on the plasma-cut pieces, which I cut out, sandblasted, and etched. The world was done with the fiber laser (which could still raster), and the wolf markings were done with Cermark, but most of the marking washed off, giving them almost the same effects.

Eventually, one of the lab techs showed me how to use the Muse, and I was able to complete the project on it, assemble it, and voila!

I attached the metal to the wood by giving it a common axis and epoxying them together. Most of the wood was wood glued together if it was fixed.

The two biggest problems in my mind are that the gears are far too tight and that, consequently, it’s very hard to move the wheel without shifting the base, and I didn’t leave much room to grab onto the base. However, the aesthetic is beautiful, and the darker wood (or the Muse’s rastering, I’m not too sure what caused the darker coloration) looks really good. Overall, I think this was a great success.

 

Cost Estimate: $370
Materials: $100 (This includes a $80 can of Cermark, which is kind of unfair here since I didn’t use much and, more importantly, it didn’t even come through, but I used it, so it’s here)
Labor: $240 (16 hrs at $15/ hr)
Machining: $30