Triple Gear Rings (easier print but some assembly required)

prusaprinters

This is a remix of https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:79310 which was a remix to make solid of this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:66708 Check out the information on that second link above and check out the following video that youtuber Numberphile had posted as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mf0JpTI_gg Thanks very much to henryseg for sharing the stl files. I liked this design but decided that removing all the supports to print in one assembled piece on an FDM printer wasn't too appealing so I decided to divide the assembly up into pieces then assemble with superglue in order to avoid removing lots of support. I have printed this at 75% scale at 100% infill at 0.28 layer height with a brim and support. The pieces fit tight but I was successfully able to get it together and get it to spin after some fiddling. I did get it to rotate by hand at 75% scale after working it by hand for a few minutes. 75% scale was successful for me and cut the print time approximately in half but If I were to print again, I might not scale it down as much (or possibly not at all) so there is more tolerance between the pieces to see if they might then rotate easier. I might also choose a lower layer height to see how that would help smooth out the rotation even further. Start with a whole ring and put half of each of the other two rings together inside the whole ring at one time, then when those three pieces are engaged with each other, glue the other halves of the two half rings on to complete each of the rings in the correct orientation (align the side of the half rings that touch the bed on the same side and make sure the teeth are engaged properly (make sure each loop is not flipped backwards which you can confirm after assembling one whole ring and two half rings together). I first sanded each of the four half rings by placing sandpaper flat on a table and then running each half rings back and forth a few times to flatten and scuff the mating surface flat spots smooth to ensure they were in the same plane and tight fitting for a strong bond before assembling. Part_1 glues to part_2 (part_1 and part_2 are not symmetric when flipped but are essentially identical when rotated about the z axis. Be careful which end of part_1 you glue to which end of part_2 for this reason; To avoid confusion, align the sides of the halves that touched the bedplate when gluing). Supergluing part_1 to part_2 would be done twice and while looped around the whole ring to link them. I used eSun PLA+ and superglue solidifies the parts in just a second or two so be sure you can properly align the half rings quickly! I think I probably confused part_1 and part_2 during assembly but since they are essentially the same when rotated, it didn't matter. I just made sure the bedplate sides were aligned and the completed ring was glued in the correct orientation to the other rings so the gear teeth engaged. I had also removed the maker mark logo out of the gear teeth so the pieces are more symmetric but included an stl file of a whole ring that retains the logo also (see Triple_Gear_whole_ring_with_original_makers_mark_logo.stl). Enjoy! Category: Interactive Art