Pinion Box!

Howdy, wonderful people!

This was another concept that bounced around for ages before finally taking form - basically a rack-and-pinion style guide rail.  The paired cogs on the lid mesh into rack gears that are inset into the box body. Really, though, I'm just a sucker for gratuitous cogs turning around :D

The box printed in the photos here is a fairly short one, but the dropbox folder contains four different heights - see below for dimensions.

Dimensions (interior)

There are a couple of variations on the box body included, each of which differs only in height.

Interior width: 80mm

Interior length: 96mm

Interior height from floor to start of lid: 26mm / 56mm / 86mm / 116mm

File Locations

You'll find this one on dropbox under 800 Pinion Box.

Printing tips

As usual, since this is an articulated model you'll want to make sure your bottom layer is nice and neat, and that there aren't any print issues like stringing or overextrusion that might bind moving parts together!  

Orientation for printing is like so:

Further Thoughts

Every design tends to bounce out new ideas and directions, and in this case I'm thinking...

* That lid could be driven by turning the cogs themselves, and having that push the lid open!

* The cogs in the lid could be bigger and alternating cogs on each side could mesh into each other, so that moving any one cog would move them all!  (though, this starts to get into problematic friction territory...)

* What if the lid was curved, and the cogs on the outside were bigger than the inside, and the rack gear was curved as well...

and perhaps most interesting:

* could a gear setup like this be made to slide vertically down a really long rack gear, as well as moving horizontally?!  I'm  not sure what that would be useful for, but it's an intriguing thought nonetheless!

Right, back to test printing!  I have a completely unrelated design in progress that I haven't managed to keep stuck to the bed despite a week adjusting the model to make it more reliable!  Maybe I'll get it working, or maybe it'll be material for the end of month disaster post! :D

In the meantime, stay safe, keep printing, and have fun! 

xoxo

Sven.