Public Domain Involute Parameterized Gears: Powered Up

thingiverse

This is an update to the Public Domain involute Gears library by @3dexplorer, with optimisations by @zkarcher. This library provides a module called gear(), which makes ordinary gears, helical gears (twisted like a screw), inner gears (teeth on the inside), and partial gears (a wedge rather than a full disk). It also provides a module called rack(), which creates a bar with teeth that will mesh with the gears (also optionally helical gears), so you can generate a rack and pinion set. The SCAD file also includes an example gear train. If you use the View/Animate command in OpenSCAD, you can see the gears and rack mesh and rotate together. If you change the number of teeth, the animation still rotates correctly. This library is pretty basic compared to some others here on Thingiverse, but sticking to the basics gives you more freedom to customise the output. It's probably missing a few useful things, so feel free to make improvements! It's also Public Domain, as the original authors wished, so you don't need to worry about any licensing problems if you redistribute it as part of a larger more complex project.