I will preface this by saying I was not able to create a working model in time to submit.  I initially was very ambitious, but was not able to dial back into the project when I got sick partway through.

The initial vision for this project was a moving horse.  A rotational input would go into the system and a gear train would carry the rotational movement to two main leg gears, each of which powered a colinear leg on the other side along with an interior gear.  The legs are all staggered in initial rotation to create a running illusion when moving the project.  The inner gears moved the top “body” assembly so that the body and head would be moving too with system input.

Much of the initial week of this project was in SolidWorks.  Me and my partner were able to create a fully functional virtual model and start working on Adobe Illustrator gear test prints and initial ascetics.  However once we did our first cardboard print I got sick for a couple of weeks and my partner had to finish the project without me in a much more simplified form.

After that I kinda forgot that I had this due until finals season…then cues a rush and far to many hours put into no tangible results.  In my initial return to the project I planned to continue the project extremely simplifies, changing down to a simple 3-gear assembly shown below.  However I could not find many of the Illustrator files that kept the testing iteration dimensional changes, and my initial partner had already done this so I was looking for a simple pivot in design.

The ‘simple’ design pivot would use the already printed wooden gears.  I would cut a flexible hinge and a circle to create a hamster wheel, with a simple 2-gear path to turn the wheel.  I have been able to successfully use living hinges before and have on my box project earlier in the semester, but was not able to this time.  I did not account for the fact that the extra length would put extra strain on the middle of the hinge, breaking every piece I tried to cut no matter what processes I used to help the bend (increasing kirf distance, using box cutters to relieve wood tension, and wetting the wood to allow more flexibility).

In this project I reevaluated my documentation skills, as my lack of iteration documentation kept me from simplifying my first design when it came to a time crunch.  I also did not have nearly enough pictures for this blog, most of my recording being Adobe Illustrator files or testing videos (screenshot is attached).