Further experiments with gear mechanisms. This mechanism is a reduction gear, reducing the rotation of the output by roughly three to one. I’m pleased with how these gear box experiments are going. I’ve tried all sorts of different types of paper gears over the years with varying degrees of success. I think these gear boxes, based on the mesh gear idea are finally a type of gear ideally suited to paper engineering.

This gear box reduces the output speed in two steps. The handle is a nine tooth gear driving a seventeen tooth gear. The output from this goes again to a nine tooth gear driving a seventeen tooth. In this prototype the final output is connected to a crank. The output speed then is 9/17 x 9/17 or 1: 3.57

The movement is smooth and positive and the model, with a few small changes, goes together easily. I’ll be releasing this and the other gearbox as a download very shortly.

I’m enjoying this!