28-Geared Cube - Fully Assembled

Here is a design for all you fans of all things mechanical!!!

This is a steampunk themed desk toy consisting of a cube with 28 gears, all of which rotate in a mesmorising pattern by just rotating one of the gears. In the middle of the cube is a tray that can be used to hold paperclips and other small items. This object is 3D printed as a single piece all at once, already fully assembled when it leaves the 3D printer!

The design also comes with a stand so it can stand up on a desk as well as a lockable lid which can be placed on the top of the cube and can be locked and unlocked by rotating the gears.

How it works...
This design consists of a cube with 28 gears, on each of the 4 sides of the cube are 7 gears; 2 large gears which are connected and move in opposite directions due to the 5 smaller gears set within the cube in a similar layout to a planetary gearbox. Each of these sets of gears on the 4 faces are all linked by the big gear on each of the 4 faces meshing at 90 degrees with the big gear on each of the 2 neighboring sides. This means that if any one gear is spun, all the gears spin in a memorizing pattern.

For a smoother motion of the Geared Cube use a lubricant suitable for plastic parts such as a PTFE (Teflon) lubricant, this is very effective in reducing the friction and has been used for the cube in the video below.