The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Is Your Imagination Future Proof?

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3D printed triple gears
3D printed triple gears

You’ve probably seen the drawings where some illustrator thought he was being very techie and placed three gears next to one another in a triangle all meshed together. You and I can look at a graphic like that and our spatial imagination quickly sees the problem, the gears can’t turn because they’re all locked in place. Now look at the gears in the photo.

The photo and the video below show a perfectly useless set of three gears, but fascinating, too, because the gears are meshed together and they turn. These were created as a complete assembly on a 3D printer and, at least for me, even after I watch the video, it’s difficult to clearly imagine the arrangement in my mind’s eye. I see it, I understand it, but it’s one orientation twist too many to conjure it up to begin with. Try it. Close your eyes and follow the path of the teeth on the individual gears and how they need to be angled to pull this off.

The reason I wanted to bring this little gizmo to your attention is to illustrate a point. Everyone is used to being amazed by all of the gee whiz electronics around us and ever since we began to create the world of complex circuitry, even when you understand it, without the aid of voltmeters and oscilloscopes, you can’t see what’s going on. But mechanical things, gears, no problem, you can watch it move, everything meshes and turns and reciprocates, it’s easy, right? Then you look at these gears and it’s get’s a little fuzzy.

Some mechanical wizard in the past might have been able to machine or carve something like this after lots of trial and error and a big pile of wasted material next to his bench, but now these gears can be designed on a computer and printed on demand. How many would you like? Want them smaller or larger? No problem. As already stated, these gears may be useless, but they’re still pretty amazing and a sign of things to come.

The beautiful upside to this is that even for the guys that are gearheads through and through, who would rather not get involved with all of the really high tech, you don’t have to worry about the world grinding to a halt with all of the advancements happening somewhere else, if we can design and create things like this, you can bet there’s a lot more coming, so stay sharp. Cool.

Link: Shapeways via Make

Video below:

Posted on Filed Under: Mechanical

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Comments

  2. The aircraft engine that the Wright brothers designed and hand-built to power their plane still shows the marks of their files inside. They too showed how to turn a vision into tangible progress. They just didn’t have computers to help.

  3. Useless? Machine an internal gear in a tube, set this in, run a toothed, driven shaft through the middle, and it looks like a pretty good mixer.

    • Hmm, could be. I was having a hard time figuring out how power could either be applied to these gears or how they could drive anything else besides themselves. I’d have to see that setup you suggest to see if everything meshed properly, but it sounds plausible.

      • A slot cut around the circumference of each gear could ride on a crescent blade which would hold the gears in position to run freely. On the blades holding the gears there could be other gears mounted or other input to drive or be driven. It could happen.

  4. I’ve been saying for a while that 3d printing is going to hit the custom motorcycle / car community in a BIG way. Think about it – any part you can imagine, plus parts duplicated from the past, etc. Doesn’t even need to be mechanical parts – just having a huge range of easily customized things like brackets, handles, housings, fenders, logo tags, etc makes a big difference.

  5. It is an interesting construct. Kinda like an Escher that you can actually hold in your hand and manipulate.

    Not to be a stick in the mud but as an engineer I do see problems with any significant power transmission. There is way too much tooth on tooth sliding. The friction and resulting wear would likely be excessive even with our most advanced materials and lubricants. In fact, the action seems more like a worm gear and would likely have similar limitations.

    It is very interesting though.

  7. This gear doesn’t have to DO anythink but expand the reality of some bright mind into the current unknown and create the next wonder of the world. It is but one step in 1000 towards warp drive (I dream of seeing warp drive in my life time)

    • I used to dream of seeing Michelle Pfeiffer naked in my lifetime but she’s grown out of that now.

  8. Most creations are designed to actaully do something, You know, fill a need. This crap is just moving art. Fun to look at, but a waste of computer time and effort. So much of our Tech world is filled with things of this nature, answering questions that no one asked. Would not the time and effort be better spent on improving the living conditions of the worlds poor populations through clean drinking water and maybe free condoms??

  9. I love the concept of 3d printing, but I see the force of a terrified industry rising up behind it. There are ludicrous fines and prison sentences slapped on people for sharing copyrighted works that are out of print already. Heck, there have been cases brought on by writing guilds against groups over literary works they (the guilds) didn’t have the rights to nor any members that held them either. Take down orders issued against paintings that too closely resemble photographs….just so many examples…
    So my hope in printing hard to find parts legally diminish greatly.

  10. Doing apparently pointless research and building silly stuff is what frees the mind, occasionally & unexpectedly results in useful innovations, and keeps getting people interested in being engineers, sociologists and such. Do serious work only, and you’ll die inside.

    Yeah, do silly stuff only, and you’re a fool. But who are we – building and riding motorcycles for leisure – to speak?

  12. Very clever! It’s like an Escher print that has been brought to reality. I believe that the 3D printer is just taking the first baby steps towards what it’s capable of producing.

  14. It does’nt need to do much…other than exercise ones imagination!
    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Riding Year to all.
    Thanks for all of your time and work Paul.
    We really do appreciate your efforts.