I’m thinking about working on a project that involves cosmetic gearing systems. I’m fairly knowledgeable when it comes to electrical and computer engineering, but I’ve never touched a gearing system in my life (aside from maybe a K’nex toy or two in the way back when). Anyone have recommendations on where to get started with creating gearing systems?
I’ve had no problems finding sites where I can purchase plastic gears and motors, and finding tools to simulate different combinations of gears, but I’m having trouble figuring out what combination of components (shafts, collars, mounting screws, etc) I’ll need to actually go from a piece of plywood and a drill press to having a set of gears that will mesh. I know that if a friend were getting into microcontrollers, I’d point him to something like the Sparkfun Arduino Inventor’s kit, if he wanted to get into analog circuits, I’d give him a protoboard with a collection of components, power supplies, and a multimeter, but I don’t know what the equivalent for gearing systems would be. Any suggestions on kits available or suppliers to look at for someone very new to this field?
Thanks in advance!