Steampunk themed 'Geared Cube' Desk Organiser

Here is my latest project which I spent a whole solid day yesterday modelling, I wanted to make something tactile and just fun to use, It has turned out to be a Steampunk themed desk organizer which can hold paperclips etc. in the tray and maybe pencils/pens in the holes around the top or balanced on the handles when not moving:

This design consists of a cube, on 4 sides of the cube are 7 gears, 2 large outer ones that move in opposite directions, the outer has handles on it so it can be easily rotated, the motion between the 2 large cogs is reversed due to 5 smaller gears in a similar layout to a planetary gearbox to reverse the gear's direction. Each of these sets of gears on the 4 faces are all liked through 1 of the big gears meshing at 90 degrees with the big gear on each of the 2 neighboring sides. This means that theoretically if any one gear is spun, they should all spin in a memorizing pattern. Best of all it should be printable as one piece.

The design also comes with a stand so it can stand up on a desk, this stand also has a flat plaque with embossed text that I may consider allowing to be customized by the buyer.

This YouTube video of a computer generated animation of this 'Geared Cube' should demonstrate the movements of this cube more effectively.



Any feedback will be greatly appreciated... Both positive and negative or if you can think of another cool feature to add.

Thanks

The external gears seem to intersect each other, unless I'm mistaken. If so, that wouldn't bode well for printing, they'd be fused!

Hi,
The external gears are meant to mesh with the 2 neighboring external gears, this way all the gears will turn if any one is turned. There is a clearance between the meshing external gears of 0.5mm so it should not fuse.
I realized that the render that I attached does indeed show these to be touching so I have replaced it with a better one to avoid confusion.

Below is an animation showing the same as the youtube link in the first post:

Nice intricate model and great animation.

However, the model would be better for me if it did something. Like raising or lowering the floor or the box, opening a lid etc etc. Still a nice model though...

Thanks for the feedback, I agree that something extra may make it better, I'm thinking about designing a lid that can be placed on top and is locked and unlocked by turning the gears...

Steampunkers will kill for that! HAHAHA! :laughing:

Nice design!

Thanks UniverseBecoming,
As per AmLachDesigns' suggestion:
'However, the model would be better for me if it did something. Like raising or lowering the floor or the box, opening a lid etc etc. Still a nice model though...'
I have modeled a removable lid that is placed on the top of the cube and is locked and unlocked by rotating the cogs (the lid locks at the centres of all 4 sides below the gears on the lid)
This brings up the possibility of designing interchangeable mechanical add-ons that can be put in place of this lid and driven by the rest of the cogs...

Lid opened:

Lastly, the lid's underside:

Hmmm, I wonder if you could vary the gear ratio slightly on the four outer gears to implement a kind of combination lock. The first thing I thought of when I saw the lid open is those giant bank vault doors with the intricate locking mechanisms.

That's a neat idea however for the moment I think i'll order a test print as it is now just to see if everything will work like this (i'm not too optimistic that everything will turn just from turning one gear...)

True, that's a lot of friction there. One might need to hold it down with one hand and crank with the other. It's most definitely going to work, but how well, that's the question.

It's ordered!!!

Cool! it'll be interesting to see how it comes out!

It has arrived and it works!!!
Check out the post in the It's Arrived Section
Or view the YouTube video
Or go to the Product Page