Where to Find Axles, Gears For Kinetic Sculpture? 267
sneakyimp writes "My brother is an architect and sculptor and wants to create kinetic sculptures powered by wind, steam, and sun. He wants to avoid electrical systems and keep this mechanical. He's prepared to cast metals for custom parts if necessary, but is hoping to find a cheap source of gears, axles, and bearings for the internal mechanical workings of these contraptions. We'll need things like miter/bevel/spur/helical gears, standard and thrust bearings, and axles." Read on below for more on the details of what sneakyimp is looking for — dismembered Capsela units won't do it.
sneakyimpo continues: "These parts won't need to support much power or torque (probably less than 1 horsepower / 550 ft-lbs). Ideally, we could get a kit which contains a variety of bevel and spur gears, a few axles, and standardized connect interfaces — kind of like a box of Legos for tinkering and prototyping.
I found the Stock Drive Products site and it looks like an extensive catalog, but one really needs to know what one is looking for and I don't think we're there yet. I've also found custom gear manufacturers and cheap plastic hobby kits but these are either too outrageously expensive or ridiculously under qualified for the job at hand.I was wondering if any of you robot builders or mechanical engineers could recommend a good starter kit with an assortment of gears or perhaps a supplier that deals in appropriately spec'ed gears rather than industrial-strength SUV transmissions."
Shop (Score:5, Insightful)
It's called a metal shop.
They make these things in bulk.
You can often buy some of the more "standard" pieces fairly cheaply if you're friendly. Anything else will need to be custom-made, which they can also do, but for a much steeper price.
Re:Shop (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Shop (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of reason is that? That doesn't make any sense at all
Because if he didn't post anon he'd be immediately reported as a spammer and burned at the stake for daring to post a link for a vendor with which he has a connection.
I work in the computer security arena and I've been burned on /. for the same reason, so now I too only post anon when I'm referring vendors, lest I'm immediately branded a spammer.
The absolute best book (Score:3, Interesting)
It has mechanisms and mechanical ideas that you'd never have thought of to do all sorts of interesting movements - ideal for any dynamic sculptures etc.
And while you're looking for power sources, consider Stirling machines. Unlike steam, they don't use water so can't boil dry.
Re: (Score:2)
For the top end of the torque requirement, yes - or go to a junkyard and disassemble a few gearboxes and trans shafts.
For any smaller more delicate bits, where you do not need that sort of torque, try to find a box of old-style (metal) Meccano on ebay / some car boot sale, and buy some rods of the right width (1/8 inch?) to get decent length axles.
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I know what a metal shop is. I am working under the (perhaps mistaken) notion that custom-made parts will cost a lot of money whereas some kind of prefabricated, standardized parts would adequately satisfy my need to transmit lower power to some lightweight components. The plastic gears I've found that come in a kit aren't quite up to the task. All the various car gears are overkill and come in a billion variants. Surely there is something prefabbed, cheap, and adequate for the task.
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So you've not heard of such places as Bearing Suppliers, industrial hardware suppliers, etc.? Do they not have yellow pages where you are? Or the google?
Seriously, my local bearing shop can supply bearings, runners, castors, racks, pinions, gears, cogs, pulleys, belts, etc. from tiny precision bits to earthmover size.
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Keep in mind I'm new to this. I'm no greasemonkey. I've been googling all afternoon and am only just getting acquainted with the possibilities.
A small engine repair shop is starting to sound like a great option. It's just a kinetic sculpture, not a mack truck.
Yellow pages sounds like a good idea -- as soon as I get a better idea of what I'm after. I'm finding it hard to believe there aren't kits or standard gear collections for this sort of thing.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Want a source of axles, chain drive, gears, etc?
Raid busted Xerox machines, the large ones you find in offices. I've rebuilt my bike totally from Xerox machine parts.
Re:Mod parent up (Score:5, Informative)
Being a machinist, I'm telling you that the approach you just offered is a hell of alot of investment, time, and learning.
I've been a machinist for 5 years, I've worked on aerospace, medical, and defense parts. Even to this day, without a damned expensive hogging machine, it still takes alot of time and all my expertise to properly machine one gear. Keep in mind here that I'm in charge of Journeymen with decades of experience, who still come to me with questions. My employer bills my time at $65/hr, and it can take me 2 days to make a custom gear. Don't forget material or tooling, we charge you for that too.
You're better off having a GEAR shop (Note that they're often quite different from a machine shop) make your quarry, far cheaper and less hassle. Gear making can be done by a machinist, but our equipment isn't geared for it (pun intended). The fact that any given gear has 31 related characteristics to it that all have to be held to a notable tolerance makes things a royal pain in the ass.
Best thing to do is to get a Machinery Handbook (decent coin, but the best investment a tinkerer will EVER make), learn the different pitches and what not, and order the gears from there. Once you realize what it is you want to do with it, there are only three things you need to know. Teeth, Pitch, and Diameter. Pitch need to be the same, teeth and diameter dictate power transfer and at what rate. Check out McMaster Carr, or MSC. As a matter of fact, McMaster Carr has some educational material on their site, just search for "gears". Even for worm and pinions, once you know what you're going to do with them, you just have to make up your mind about size.
Re: (Score:2)
Best thing I can think of would be some sort of robotics pa
Re:Mod parent up (Score:4, Informative)
The Mother of all Supply Stores (Score:5, Informative)
www.mcmaster.com
Re:The Mother of all Supply Stores (Score:5, Informative)
Note: At first glance, the front page of their website looks like some kind of lame link farm. Click once or twice, or enter some search terms, and see the wonder that is mcmaster-carr. This may be the most "i'm not sure what i need, exactly, but i'll know it when i see it"-friendly website or hardware store i've ever seen.
Re:The Mother of all Supply Stores (Score:5, Insightful)
thirded.
also, i think they just went out of business but i'm not sure:
http://www.trianglemachinery.com/ [trianglemachinery.com]
i'm not sure where you're located though, you kinda need to be there to know what to get.
surplus places are good when you're making custom art-like stuff.
-Taylor
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why do I get a "Virus Detected" from Avast when I try to go to that site? :)
Really? Maybe avast is crazy, i don't get any errors and the company is indeed legitimate. Maybe their server got hacked but they are just a little surplus store, they wouldn't do any harm on purpose.
I don't really like AVAST anyway...
-Taylor
Re: (Score:2)
Thirded. Between easy searching, excellent data on most of their parts, and a *wide* range of items, there's really not much more you could ask for. Prices aren't the cheapest you'll find, but they're usually competitive. You pay a mild premium for the huge inventory, fast shipping times, and truly excellent customer service -- but it's worth every penny, especially for small quantity orders.
For things like gears and sprockets and shafts, they won't have every conceivable size -- but the sizes they lack
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Precisely. Their printed catalog is thicker than the phone book, with thinner paper and smaller text.
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McMaster is amazing. I have yet to encounter another company that is nearly as efficient.
When I was in LA, my morning orders would arrive often THE SAME AFTERNOON, which includes the latency of the university delivery system where I worked.
Now that I am in Boston, my orders arrive THE NEXT DAY without fail, again, including the latency of a large institutional delivery system.
Sure, sure, you say, that's easy, just pick the ultra-fast-pronto-first-thing delivery when you place your order. This was with the
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Agreed, not-so AC. McMaster-Carr's website is a beautiful economy of design. It's so uncluttered when you first go there you think "this can't possibly be it." Their search engine actually works, too. And they don't just farm out the query to Google. It's their search engine.
I'm a hobbyist metalworker, and I buy from those guys regularly. Clean, easy to search catalog. Massive inventory of truly hard to locate stuff. Fast delivery. It's like the hammer-and-anvil version of Digi-Key. Love 'em.
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Re: (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.smallparts.com/ [smallparts.com] Small parts has a lot of stuff that's not cheap, but can be bought in small quantities.
The modern toothed belt technology is quite good for power/weight precision and you can go back and buy more.
The other thing to do is look for a local old time hardware store or industrial machine shop supply store if you live in a decent sized city. And it never hurts to browse ebay.
Re: (Score:2)
That site does look useful. However, it looks a bit pricey. Am I right in understanding that spur gears [mcmaster.com] start at $8.61 EACH and go up from there? That seems a bit pricey for tinkering.
I'm also puzzling over the plain bore. It might well be machinable but I don't want that. I want gears that are easily mounted using a setscrew or which attach to a hexagonal or square shaft. I want to avoid using taper pins, welding, etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah mcmaster is definitely expensive... but they stock everything, ship same day, top notch customer service, and they have huge warehouses in a few big cities. If you live nearby you can just drive to and pick your stuff up an hour after placing the order, with saturday hours too. That's why I order from them, anyway.
discounttools.com, littlemachineshop.com, smallparts.com, grizzly.com are other similar suppliers I use for this kind of stuff (mostly metalworking tools in my case but smallparts probably ha
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Thanks for the tips!
My brother might be up for the machine shop approach, but I'm gunning for the prefab gears thing. I checked smallparts.com and they do have a few gears, but the selection is pretty limited -- mostly very small bore sizes. They do have some larger bore (.625 inch) but those gears is PRICEY...$30 and up. I'm thinking 1/4" bore, need some spur gears and bevel gears with various tooth counts and a couple of mounted bearings.
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That's counterproductive. Either they'll stop at the strip club and never get the beraings and gears, or they'll buy extra lube and get in some REAL trouble at the strip club.
Your toybox? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm no expert and I didn't really read exactly what you were looking for, but what about going to places like Goodwill / Salvation Army Stores / Garage sales and disassembling some of the older toys that are likely missing parts. I'm sure an old music box has some good quality metal gears, etc. and you probably won't spend more than a few bucks.
Layne
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American Science & Surplus (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.sciplus.com/ [sciplus.com]
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but oh, no! [bluefeathertech.com] it looks like Wacky Willy's is gone. That is truly sad.
Re:American Science & Surplus (Score:4, Informative)
If you're in Chicago, there's a joint called American Scientific and Surplus out on Milwaukee near Bryn Mawr.
Not only will you find all sorts of gears, axles, motors, bearings etc (really cheap), but also fresnel lenses, lab coats, powerful lasers, prisms, switches, bombsights from WWII-era bombers, jacob's ladders, lenses for telescopes, microscopes, lab glassware and about a million other cool things. Often, the use of particular objects in their inventory is not clear, but they'll sell it to you anyway. It's really worth talking to the guys (all guys) who work there, because if you think you know some geeks, you haven't seen nothin' 'til you've seen these dudes. Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys would seem normal compared to these fellas. But nice? they're all really nice and helpful and probably have everything you need to make a dirty nuke in the back. Oh, they sell lots of protective gear, too, which is helpful.
They've got a website and will send you a catalog, but you've got to actually go into the place for the stuff you want (or call them and talk to one of the guys who work there). I'd put a link here, but I'm being called to dinner.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
And if you're within 2 hours drive, their store [google.com] in West Chicago, IL is well worth the trip.
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American Science & Surplus rocks! (Score:2)
I don't know the words to say how kickass these guys are. Back in my prototyping days I moved to Milwaukee partially just to be able to get to their
can't get specific items (Score:2)
I had run across that site before but had to dismiss it. As you can see [sciplus.com] it has little to offer in the way of specific gears. They're all plastic and they don't seem to have any relation to each other. I need something where I can get a bit more specific. I'll need to be able to gear things down by exact amounts, get bevel gears or worm gears, etc.
American Science and surplus in Chicago. (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
A) I have been going there for years for things like this (hope springs eternal.... cross fingers they've got what I need....Nope!)
B) I have been very disappointed and end up buying from McMaster Carr Supply , Grainger or Small Parts Inc. to complete whatever bizarro project I was doing (usually for TV or Theater).
I USED to rely on Am Science, and there was a time when my shop was basically a mirror of the American Science & S
bikes? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've seen some great and complex stuff made from bike parts.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Check out the "directory" link at the bicycle collective website [bikecollectives.org] and see if there's one near you.
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Excellent suggestion. He's already working this and will be going junking this weekend. Bikes offer a nearly infinite range of gear ratios and are readily available and cheap. The downsides for me are that 1) transmitting power must be done via chain...the big wide chain enclosure might force some limitations on the shape of the sculpture that axles wouldn't; 2) We haven't figure out how to get a lengthy shaft connected to a bicycle gear yet...this will probably be fairly obvious when he starts taking th
car scrapyards (Score:2, Informative)
is the glaringly obvious answer
although it depends on the size he wants
there'll be plenty of parts there - differential, drive shaft, prop shaft, gearbox, flywheel, starter motor, steering will all have parts he can use, and from the last time i was in a scrapper they'll be pretty cheap particularly if he goes for the older cars.
might need some dismantling though, which isn't easy on a rusting heap
Meccanno? (Score:2, Insightful)
Off the top of my head (Score:2, Interesting)
Spare bike parts. Should be cheap, strong enough for a couple hp, pretty standard. More chain drive than gear drive, but the idea is the same. Lots of variety in bearings.
An old self-propelled lawnmower should have a belt drive to satisfy your requirements as well.
Are blenders direct drive, or are they gear reduction? 500 watts is around 1 hp, so that could work too.
Mechanical. (Score:5, Funny)
He wants to keep this mechanical.
As opposed to...?
Magnetically stabilised plasma girders?
Holographical joints?
Fusion Axles?
Re: (Score:2)
You seem to have inexplicably skipped over four words in the sentence you quoted.
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You seem to have inexplicably skipped over four words in the sentence you quoted.
That was intentional. I thought about add ing "...", but considered it unnecessary, as it doesn't affect my point.
What exactly makes electricly powered kinetic sculptures "unmechanical"?
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What exactly makes electricly powered kinetic sculptures "unmechanical"?
Those were the four words that let you know that he meant purely mechanical, ie not electric/electronic. It's a perfectly common use of the term.
Pedantry is fun and all, but at a certain point you are just being disingenuous.
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Contact a gear maker (Score:2)
Junkyard (Score:4, Informative)
Transmissions, differentials, and front wheel spindles on RWD cars ready for the crusher.
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Transmissions, differentials, and front wheel spindles on RWD cars ready for the crusher.
Did you see the site he linked?
Car parts will be way too big compared to the examples he has used [scientificsonline.com].
I'd say he's looking for anything from hobby quality RC parts (small) up to motorcycle & atv parts (medium).
So the place to look would be hobby shops and motorcycle/offroad repair shops.
I leave out bicycles because they won't have the range of parts he's looking for.
That said, I don't think he's going to find anything in the small-medium range which can handle 550 ft-lbs of torque. Most cars can't handle th
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I did, I initially thought he was just talking about the smaller stuff for prototyping.
You'd be surprised though at some of the smaller parts you can get from a junkyard. Don't overlook speedometer heads, angle drives to drive a speedometer, power seat motors, power and manual window mechanisms, wiper motors, tape decks...
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Hmmm...These are probably way overbuilt for this task. I doubt we'll have even one horsepower. Also, I'm not exactly the transmission-disassembling-uber-greasemonkey that you might think I am. I was rather hoping for something smaller, lighter, cheaper, and easier.
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You keep saying this, but HP isn't really the point. Spin a cheap plastic gear at 20k RPM and you can probably get >1HP through it without too much trouble, but spin it at 10RPM with 0.05HP on it and you'll be lucky to see it last a minute before the teeth break. You need to care about the force being applied to the gear teeth - and 550flb is quite a lot of torque, so little gears will probably break, thin axles will twist out of true or simply shear. Two options - go for heavy stuff, or gear things up s
Torque... (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
> 550 ft/lbs is one helluva lot of torque.
No it isn't. 550 ft-lbs might be! Nm is a much more sensible unit though.
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Indeed it is a hell of a lot of torque. That's the kind of torque you get from a supercharged 6 litre V8. SUV transmission is precisely the kind of thing you would need, and not from a small SUV either.
The power thing doesn't much matter, it's torque which moves things and breaks driveshafts. An engine more powerful than 1hp but still with 550 lbs/ft would just turn faster, not with any more force. (power = torque x rpm)
Re:Torque... (Score:5, Informative)
> 550 ft/lbs is one helluva lot of torque.
ft/lbs is not torque at all (torque comes in lb-ft). If it's anything it's something like linear feet per pound of string. However, the article says ft-lbs, not ft/lb. A ft-lb is a unit of work. Work per unit time is power. 550 ft-lb/sec is one horsepower.
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There is no difference dimensionally between a lb-ft and a ft-lb. It's a conventional distinction only to clarify whether you mean work or torque. The reason the two quantities have the same unit is because one of them incorporates an angular term, which is dimensionless. From a dimensional standpoint there is no difference between a ft-lb and a lb-ft. Thus the danger of trying to equate dimensional units with physical variables.
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My bad. My physics muscles have atrophied. I took the 550 ft*lbs from the definition of horsepower, having forgotten that there was a time element in power that is absent from torque.
It would be considerably less than that. I'm imagining at max a 10-ft diameter windmill driving this thing. Any estimates about how much torque this represents would be welcome. Any discussion on the relation between torque and power that don't involve equations would also be welcome. I can get the equations from wikipedia
smallparts.com (Score:3, Informative)
flea market (Score:3, Informative)
old clocks are chock full of brass gearing and bearings. steer clear of antique shops though, since you will definitely pay way to much for something you are planning on destroying anyway.
Also, kinex and lego mindstorms have nice stuff, but I think you are talking about much larger structures?
Bicycle repair shops come to mind for stuff larger than clockwork.
hobbyist organisations no doubt have resources to check. Check out Make magazine's forums for people who do what you are planning
http://makezine.com/community/ [makezine.com]
Dead copiers are a better bet. (Score:3, Informative)
Try a junk yard (Score:4, Informative)
If you are looking for parts try a junk yard. You may have to do some driving to find the right "kind" of junkyard. Some specialize in parts that can be re-used in vehicles as originally intended. These junkyards are expensive. Look for a yard in a small town or in the country. I've been to junkyards that will sell you stuff by how much you can carry or how much you can fit on a cart. These are the best because you can get a lot of stuff pretty cheap.
Bring a good set of gloves, make sure your tetanus shot is up to date, and have a ton of fun digging through the junk.
How about a bike shop? (Score:2, Interesting)
junkyard? (Score:3, Informative)
An automotive junkyard might be a good bet for some of that sort of stuff - not just transmission bits, there are plenty of other motors and gears (windows, starter, various pumps) you could strip parts from. You'ld probably need a pretty good idea of what you want exactly to go that route, though.
Ur Doin It Rong (Score:3, Insightful)
You'ld probably need a pretty good idea of what you want exactly to go that route, though.
Traditionally the form of a kinetic sculpture is determined by the parts available, not the other way around. The challenge is to make something great given a whole lot of stuff that's not. Then again, most artists are poor and good scroungers.
Idea: find an old factory being decommissioned and start stripping machines. Pay slightly more than scrap if you need to.
Steampunk supplies (Score:3, Informative)
McMaster-Carr (Score:2, Redundant)
Perhaps the greatest company in the world [mcmaster.com]. McMaster has a huge inventory, reasonable prices, quick delivery and an easy to use website. If you want gears, machinable material, welding supplies, or anything else a kinetic sculptor would need, you should find it there.
Golf kart parts (Score:2)
Reasonably heavy duty, cheap, and readily available.
Find your local heat treat shop. (Score:5, Interesting)
Your average heat treater is going to have gears and pieces that get screwed up during nitriding or other operations. Since you are doing sculptures, its quite possible you don't need the case hardening that a regular customer needs. See if you can find a shop that does a lot of pinion and sun gears for example, then offer to buy on the cheap things they can't fix in re-work. Since its a sculpture, you probably don't need to go custom on some of the sizes.
Surplus (Score:2)
Re:Surplus Center (Score:2)
If you're looking for a good selection of gears, dig down into the Power Transmission / Transaxle section, and take apart one of the 2-speed Peerless transaxles. There are bevel gears, a differential, and several nice spur pairs on shafts. Sometimes this transaxle pops up for less money, but not much less.
Depends on size (Score:5, Insightful)
As others have written there are a several places to get good parts. Of course it depends on the size of the sculpture, and weight of the pieces.
I build pick and place robots for a living, excellent resources are always good to have.
Besides Granger, McMaster there is also:
Standard Din sizes, and also american
http://mdmetric.com/ [mdmetric.com]
another good one stock drive products
http://www.sdp-si.com/ [sdp-si.com]
And If you need to handle larger loads, as I expect your sculptures to need. Seek your local power distribution company (as in gear boxes).
This is one of many (Motion Industries)
https://www.motionindustries.com/motion3/jsp/mi/index.jsp [motionindustries.com]
for a large list click below
http://search.globalspec.com/productfinder/findproducts?query=gear%20box&se=ggka&setag=MOTN [globalspec.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the thoughtful post. I had seen sdp-si.com. That was one of the links in my original post. Mdmetric looks good but I'd have to call them I guess.
Motionindustries.com looks super handy -- a nice orderly search by gear parameters. I'm puzzling over the means by which these gears get coupled to the shaft. There's no setscrew and the shaft hole is perfectly round. Would that be a weld? Do you have to machine it? How do you keep the shaft coupled to the gear?
Re: (Score:2)
That is called a coupling. There are hard couplings, which are just holes drilled on center for the shaft size you are connecting (can be different diameters) and simple set screws to bind them to a shaft (usually a flat ground on the shaft).
Here is a simple hose style:
http://www.drillspot.com/products/45942/Dayton_2X498_100_22_Flex_Coupling [drillspot.com]
For vibration, or off axis loads there are flex couplings that can take up to say a 20 degree flex constantly.
Here is some bellow's style couplings:
http://www.directindu [directindustry.com]
check the KSR community (Score:5, Informative)
Look up Kinetic Sculpture Racing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_sculpture_race [wikipedia.org]
The guys who do this build wacky and weird human-powered contraptions. These are supposed to go on land, water, sand, and mud, and be only human-powered. (Some vehicles fail in one or more of these categories; but they can avoid being disqualified by providing sufficient bribes to the Kinetic Kops. In plain sight of all onlookers, of course.) Vehicles that can do all of the above, without any "pilots" leaving the vehicle to adjust things, get the "ACE Award" for good engineering.
One of my favorite kinetic sculpture vehicles is a behemoth that carries four people, each of whom provides power to one wheel, and one of whom has the steering wheel and brakes. I have also seen a vehicle that carried eight people, all powering a common drive train.
Anyway, these races have been happening for decades, and you can find the discussion lists where the KSR community discusses where to get parts, how to make things strong and reliable, etc.
For the glory!
steveha
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I checked the wikipedia link but there's no mention of a forum or community. Any idea how to get in touch with these folks? I see the race is this weekend. It's my girlfriend's birthday though...maybe I can talk her into going...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Google is your friend. There are so many different groups doing Kinetic Sculpture Races... do some searches, find their various web pages. If you live near one of the big races, you might be able to meet people in real life.
But what the heck, I did a few Google searches for you. Here's a few links:
How to Build a Kinetic Racing Sculpture [kinetickingdom.com]
Links from Kinetic Kingdom [kinetickingdom.com]
Resources from Kinetic Kensington (in Philadelphia) [kinetickensington.org]
Several of those web sites have mailing lists (maybe just for news of the specific race, mayb
smallparts.com (Score:2)
smallparts.com has things along these lines and I've ordered various hardware from them in the past.
Obviously... (Score:2)
Auto junkyard.
The Black Hole [roadsideamerica.com] if you're close enough.
Most any plant has a pile of junk. Many gizmos in there.
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I live about a half mile from the Black Hole.
Probably has anything you could want, if only you could find it amongst all the junk.
Make your own (Score:5, Interesting)
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thats what i'm doing, but its a very serious investment in tooling, machinery, and learning.
there really should be a reasonable place to buy basic gears at close to the cost of the stock.
Think about similar hp applications to find answer (Score:2)
I'd approach it this way. Ask yourself what applications require similar power transfers. The first two things that come to mind are riding lawn-mowers and agricultural food handling. A transmission off an old riding mower would give you a great start. Forward/reverse, and several ratios. Also don't rule out belt driven systems. They are cheap and easy to work with. Go to your local 'motor, pump, & power transmission' shop where you'll find an endless supply of axles (custom made & off the shelf), p
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Good suggestions. Mowers sound about right.
W.M. Berg (Score:2, Informative)
Starter kit (Score:2)
What you really want is a Berg [wmberg.com] breadboarding kit. This is the pro version of a Mecchano set. Expect to pay something in low four figures for a full kit, although you can buy parts separately.
The usual suppliers are Stock Drive Products, Small Parts, Inc., Berg, Boston Gear, and McMaster. The first two mostly stock miniature parts; the last two offer larger sized components. Incidentally, if you haven't worked with gears that carry significant loads, go to the Boston Gear site and work through their "
McMaster, all the way (Score:2)
For custom stuff: (Score:2)
Old motorbike gearboxes? (Score:3, Insightful)
And also bits of old garden machinery.
Try Belts and Pulleys Instead (Score:2, Informative)
Pulleys and belts are relatively inexpensive, and can handle a lot more misalignment. There are cogged pulleys and belts, if you have timing applications.
As others have posted, http://www.McMaster.com is the key reference. Their prices range from competitive to outrageous, depending on the item. Their shipping alwa
The best kit I've ever seen (Score:2, Informative)
Big Blue Saw (Score:3, Interesting)
Tractor Supply Company (Score:2)
Your local TSC store has all sorts of belts, gears, pulleys, hydraulic cylinders, etc. Not sure where you are but they seem to be all over the USA.
Even most Ace hardware stores carry a good supply of pulleys and belts for all sorts of applications.
Also something to consider.. (Score:2, Interesting)
First of two, there is a neat range of stuff at
http://www.robotmarketplace.com/ [robotmarketplace.com]
Second of two, you can do nifty things with just steam and pistons, but I assume you'll be doing that anyway.. =p
junk day in rich towns (Score:2)
I live in a ritzy town near boston, and the stuff that gets thrown out on trash day is unbelievable....
although not sure gears are high on the list
The army has some second hand warehouses
McMaster carr - as prev poster noted, they are fabulous; never out of stock and always next day - you don't need to worry about where you put that extra stuff: never order extra, let mcmaster be your stockroom
Universitys sometimes have good stuff; in the 90s MIT had a whole building full of vacumn tube oscilliscopes; I don'
BuySteampunk.com (Score:2)
Often times you can find an amazing assortment of spare parts for dirt cheap, certainly cheaper than these other places that people have linked. Sorry for the s
A lot like McMaster... (Score:2)
except their prices are higher, their quality generally lower, and they will not sell to the general public....