Get the gear
I am basically tipping my hat to the hobby engineers out there. Somewhere along the way I needed a ‘universal joint’ but research efforts far outweighed practical knowledge. This post acknowledges those that inhabit the world of, wait for it… gears.
Hypothetical gear config @ 60 degrees:
and a nice write up on gears:
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/gears.html
To bevel or not to bevel
In my research I came across some confusion in terminology (or probably my own). While mitre gears (or miter) fall into the category of bevel gears – gears of various angles – the term denotes a motion transfer of 90 degrees.
Some instances of rotation require antithetical movement such as counter rotation.
So what is the application for this type of gearing I hear you ask ?
Well, as Beatty Robotics outlined, NASA employs a similar setup for their Mars Rover to enable mobility over rocky terrain (beatty-robotics.com). And check out Beatty’s own fab counter rotation differential.
So here is my build for a similar axle. Needing a prototype setup to try things out I used adjustable parts such as bearings mounts, spacers, collars etc before constructing the 3 geared version. Casings, blocks and collars are aluminium.
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