PLA Spring Toy REDO

thingiverse

Very fun to play with, easy to print, minimal cleaning required. Fun to wind up, and fun to watch spin into action. The 3rd idler gear spins so fast and so easily that its own momentum could unwind the spring in the opposite direction, depending on how you balance the light and heavy gears perfectly. It's essentially a printed spring with a pawl inside a drive gear for winding up, and 3 idler gears that prolong the action seamlessly. The original files had some issues (some were "inside out" and didn't work with some slicers). I redid the whole thing in Solidworks and played with tolerances until it was very easy to assemble without glue but still sturdy. I also added chamfers to all bottom layers (to counteract squishing, which is especially hard to clean between 60 teeth in 4 gears....) effectively. Still - BIG BIG PROPS to the original designer, especially now that I know how sensitive the ratio of power in the spring to the weight and size of idler gears is - and here it's very fun and precise. When I tried to resize or remove some gears, the spin got too fast or too weak quickly. Even removing "excess" material from the gears, replacing it with spurs, affects the weight significantly, so I recommend you print one of the three idler gears "full" (without spurs), so it's heavier, and then test it in positions 2, 3 or 4... to get the perfect balance. (do use "print one at a time", unless you enjoy cleaning up messes) Enjoy watching! Check out this video: https://youtu.be/e4j5zX3Sbnw If you print it and love it, please do upload your Make and consider tipping generously.