GearHeads Forum

I agree, and that was my eventual plan.  But I'm still hung up on motors.  The many synchronous motors I looked at would be perfect if it were not for the fact that they all have an average rated life that is much too short for a clock that runs continuously.  So now I'm looking at a ...

Steve - Wow, that looks like exactly what I want!  Constant RPM but no computer to deal with.  I'll look into that and check to see if it has any interesting relatives.  Thank you!

Tim

It's not the money.  It's just that I'm a lot better with 3D printing and CNC milling than I am with Arduino control.  But I guess we're never too old to learn a new skill...

Art - Thanks!  I figured I'd get that answer, but I'm always hopeful.  Now I have to work up the ambition to get into a stepper motor with computer control.

Tim

I'd love to make a fancy wooden-gears clock with exposed moving parts for show, but one that doesn't need winding and keeps accurate time by being driven by an accurate motor, preferably battery.  Standard clock movements likely don't have enough torque to drive a gear train.  I could use ...

That's a great answer.  Thanks!  I'm ashamed I didn't think of just setting the print slicer to shrink the gear.  Elegant simplicity!

When I 3D print Gearotic gears, they are too tight for the 'optimal' center spacing I specified in your calculator, due to 3D printing tolerance variation. So I simply specify a slightly smaller (about 3 percent) center spacing. But this means that the layout on your screen does not precisely match ...

I've just started with Gearotic and a TAZ 5 printer, and it's wonderful! My first few trial gears came out great. But as I see all the mechanical marvels on thingiverse and elsewhere, and am now making my own gears for silly machines to come, I wonder about the practical aspects, especially shafts ...