Acrylic Gears

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Here are a couple of the gears I did on the dealers Epilog mini24 45Watt. The turned out better than I expected and when meshed are very smooth.

The gear next to the quarter are showing the bottom cut. The top looks even better. I have some with holes and others with servo shaft cutouts.

Could not be happier with the cuts. While these are a little delicate as far as gears go I was surprised at how sturdy they are with the spokes. Once I get my laser I will try 16 spokes. They really look good on various projects.


Now I have to come up with some small shafts. Does anyone have a source for small steel, brass or plastic shafts I couls use for various projects?

[Dan Hintz]

I would think they would be a little more solid if the thickness of the tooth base was thicker... I think you have enough spokes, but there's very little material between the bottom of the teeth.

[George M. Perzel]

Check McMasters-great selection and super service- and , no, my name is not McMaster and I do not own any stock in Mcmaster nor have any relatives or friends working there that I know of, and I am not paid nor receive any compensation from them in any way nor receive any goods in lieu of payment from them for mentioning them in any capacity in the USA or in Qatar or Botswanna.......
Best regards;
George
LaserArts

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Way to go George. Nice Disclaimer!!!:D

Remember when deals were done on a hand shake and some one's word meant something??? I am dealing with an International Fortune 100 co now that sent me a 13 page contract wanting to do background checks on my help, have access to my files to make sure my costs were in line with the invoice and a bunch of other junk that they use for on site vendors. I said NO WAY am I signing this. So then they send me a 6 page one and it still is outrageous but getting closer but they still tried to sneak in Terms 90 days when I specifically said "PREPAID with 50 % down". Then they say lets skip the contract for now so we can get the order started and we will work out the details of the contract later. So hopefully a check is on it's way:D. So through out the negotiations, I get emails from the legal dept in India, accounts payable in UK, and my vendor relations manager in the US. Thank God I will be able to make this project with 98% of the product's components being made here in the USA.
I was told by some friends I know, that work at these Fortune 500+- Co's that you may have to jump through a lot of hoops but once you are in, as long as your price is fair and can maintain quality, they will keep using you because . So hopefully it will be well worth it.

Sorry for chasing that rabbit, so any ways Michael, McMasters is a good Co. to deal with and has a vast assortment of items you may find useful.

What kind of things are you doing with small gears like you have shown?

What kind of material are you going to be using?

I know from my own experiences, that what ever the temp of the room your laser is in that if the temp is higher or lower where the item is used that you will experience expansion and contraction so if your tolerances are tight, be sure to check with your material supplier as to what this rate may be. So if you laser your part in let's say Tuscon Arizona and the humidity is really low and tempo is around 90F (in June) and your parts are then shipped to Buffalo, NY and not opened til January the next year, there may be difficulty assembling them because of the difference. So just keep this in mind if you are going to have tight tolerances.

Also keep in mind that some software cuts either to the left, right or on center-line. So when doing interior or exterior cuts you may have the kerf of your laser might also be the difference of your accuracy. There is one program that I know of that allows you to pick either side or center-line to laser but I have not bought it yet. It is a version of Alphacam made just for Trotec to run their lasers. Still waiting for them to send me a trial version:rolleyes:. I have also heard that Engrave lab might be able to do this but it was bigger $$$ and could not justify it for the laser.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

The stuff I am doing is mostly looks only. Dioramas, scaled down micro art. I also have some very small robot walkers where a cam on a servo moves a small leg. We are talking ounces here not pounds. Even that fradgile gear would work on most things I am doing. That gear was pretty much for looks. On very small scale stuff the multiple spoke stuff looks the best.

For the robots I would probably go with a pitch haulf what is shown. I also plan on doing both some larger wood clocks and micro ones made out of Acrylic.

An example of a clock I have been working on is a base that rotates like a lazy Suzann. Mounted on that base is a hourglass that is flipped once per hour.

In many of the robotic projects I use these small actuators by a company called dynamixel. They are very expensive because they pack so much torque and accuracy in such a small package. They can be operated like a servo or in full rotational mode where you can control speed and torque on the fly. They also give feedback of temperature, load, position.

Here is a larger robot using two such Actuators.
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/Projects/MegaBotP4.pdf

Here is a walker built completly out of Acrylic and Servos.
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/Projects/DiosWalker.shtml

I would have liked to have created a small movable platform to hold the Pocket PC to allow the face to turn. I will make a large gear that holds the pocket PC and inside the robot will be a servo/gear. To do what I want I need a large inside gear. Almost no load in this case but will need to mesh smoothly.

Keep in mind that the laser is mostly for prototyping and if I make something that becomes popular I will most likly have the parts cast. It all depends. For now I am just shooting from the hip.

[Doug Griffith]

I second McMaster Carr but also check out http://www.smallparts.com

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Here is a small robot that was designed to examine my AC duct work.

http://www.kronosrobotics.com/Projects/Ares%20Duct%20Bot.shtml

It worked ok, but the problem was the camera attached to the servo. It would have been better with the camera mounted a little further forward and attached to a small shaft that had a gear. The Servo would then turn the gear. The camera would have had more range of motion and moved slower.

As a matter of fact the thing could have been made about 1/2 the size had I used micro servos for the wheels and had access to a laser cutter at the time.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Thanks, "Small Parts" had just what I needed and since I have Amazon Prime, 2 day shipping is free.

[Doug Griffith]

Very cool. You might also need some small ball bearings one day. http://www.vxb.com has a good assortment.

Cheers,
Doug

[George D Gabert]

you might also want to try the local BORG, they have weld wire in several small diameters

GDG

[David Fairfield]

Hey Michael

Cool robot, practical application too! Hey would you tell more about micro art and dioramas? I'm doing the same stuff!

Dave




The stuff I am doing is mostly looks only. Dioramas, scaled down micro art...

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

@David

Some of the art pieces I want to do are actually clocks, but not in the formal sense. They are an art piece where certain pieces move.

For example:

A Sun moving across a background would represent the hour.
A boys fishing pole being bent into the water to represent minutes.

[David Fairfield]

Very cool clock ideas. The laser is ideal for cutting out the various shapes you'll need.

Interested in the dioramas you do. Laser has a million applications there, too. Do you have a website or an album online?

Dave

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Just my robotics website
http://www.kronosrobotics.com (http://www.kronosrobotics.com/)

Most of the articles on the website were articles that I did for various magazines. The magazines I deal with let me keep control of my intellectual property.

My flickr page has photos and some movies but it geared more tword my photography.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8656232@N06/

Here is a clip of my lab
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8656232@N06/3203110920/

I am getting big into videography and have even sold a few HD clips.
I want to get into the dioramas to do some cool video stuff