Wheel for M12 Threaded Rod

thingiverse

This is a 54 tooth pinion wheel made for use with an M12 threaded rod in a rack and pinion component. It has a 3/8" hole for the shaft and a slot for a 10x8x3mm shaft key. The unusual combination of measurements is due to what was available at my local hardware store, including an M12 rod, a 3/8" axle, and a 10x3mm aluminum extrude. How I Designed This Fully modeled the threaded rod in Fusion to the desired circumference length. Bent into a circle in Meshlab using a geometric function similar to (x,y,z) => x, cos(2pi * z / l) * (rgear + rrod + y), sin(2pi * z / l) * (rgear + rrod + y) Used Meshlab CSG to cut that out of a cylinder. Imported back into Fusion, converted back to a useful object with mesh2bpl, and removed the shaft.