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Invariably there is a part in most design work where a certain detail takes up a disproportionate amount of time to resolve. So far with the Dome Light, this would be the geared dial mechanism. Having no background in engineering, the entry into gear design was a bit more involved than I thought. What did I know about Diametral Pitch and how to properly calculate it? Thanks to my buddy, the internet, I was able to find gear formulae (here). But so far, this has not resulted in perfectly crafted and meshing gears. Part of the problem is that my gear variables do not result in Diametral Pitch values that SolidWorks likes (I keep arriving at ’7′ and it wants ’6′ or ’8′). I have tried to fiddle with different dimensions to make this work, but so far no luck.
Here is a rough, semi-functional assembly that I have been working on:
The internal spur gear should have a pitch diameter of 5.75 with an outer diameter of 6 (I want the teeth to be .25in). Each of the smaller spur gears in the middle should have a pitch diameter of 1.75 with .25in teeth as well. So far I have guessed at giving the smaller gears 14 teeth. With a 1:3 ratio for the internal spur gear, that should give that gear 42 teeth. When I use the formula plugging in these values, I get a Diametral Pitch of 7 -> DP=number of teeth (42)+2 divided by outside diameter of the pitch (6). I am missing something… I’ll keep working at it.
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Current Projects
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