Happy New Gear? :D

(TL;DR: I'll be out of contact for the next two weeks, but there are posts scheduled!  You'll want to use the links in the posts to access the models, they won't be in the regular dropbox folder!)  

Sorry, that title pun was terrible :P  But here we are on the cusp of a new year already, after what seems like both a very short and a very long year.  While it's been a year that will long be remembered for many reasons, I can say that personally it's been a year of amazing support and encouragement, for which I remain eternally and humbly grateful!

What about December, though?!

Focusing on more recent things, let me think of some of the derailed experiments that have gone on.  Well, you can see the weird gear thing above!  I'd still like to do something  with that concept, but right now it's a bit of a dead end.  I really do love noncircular gears, though.  I went through a couple of versions of this before I put it aside, just trying to find an interesting mechanism I could make use of.  It does look cool :)

On a non-gear topic, I also started experimenting with roller chains.  This was an early experiment, and I've actually popped the model into the 999 ZZZ Experiments / Roller Chain folder.  If you decide to venture down the path of printing it, hopefully you'll get the idea from the pictures below :)

I moved on from this assembly version to a completely print-in-place version that prints with sprockets, too, and it's come out quite well so far!  However, print tolerances that are required in order to keep parts seprate from each other also cause problems with chain tension.  The longer the chain, the more slack creeps in, and that isn't good.  So, I need to develop a solution to adjusting that tension.  

There was also a giant marble run assembly that took two days per segment to print, and then failed miserably to keep marbles on the track... that one's going to need some rethought :)

Fortunately, there were some more successful outcomes, and those will be popping up in the near future :)

I'll be out of contact for two weeks!  But there are posts scheduled while I'm away :)

Yep, I'll be off hiking in the mountains, away from all contact, which mostly means I won't be answering question or seeing all the awesome prints that pop up on socials and discord!  There are a couple of posts scheduled, and those have specific dropbox links on them.  The models aren't (yet) in the main dropbox folder, so you'll want to use the links in the posts instead.  

All of that assumes that the post scheduling works like I think it does.  If not, there will be posts around the 12th when I reach civilisation :)

Two weeks without printing something?!  It's a strange thought!  I can't recall the last time I went any significant time without designing and printing models.

Have a happy new year!

Happy printing, happy designing and happy everything else, too.  Look after yourself and the people around you, and give your printer a hug :)

Thank you as always for your amazing and generous support, without which I couldn't get so much done <3

xoxo

Sven