Wooden Gear Driver

Make a wooden gear driver 

Playing with gears can be lots of fun. Making a driver to see those gears turn can add to the fun. I will show you how I made wooden gears and a driver from scrap parts.

1. I used GearGenerator software to design a set of gears.
2. I set the diameters of both gears to 1cm.
3. Larger gear to 18 teeth
4. Small gear to 9 teeth
5. About 6.5 cm shaft spacing
6. After design was complete the gears were laser cut. Total cut time approx. 2.5 minutes

Design Free gears @ 
​www.geargenerator.com

After the gears were cut I needed a base to connect them. I used a piece of acrylic about 3x4 inches.

 Other tools used include:

• Dremel
• Motor
• Card stock
• Glue
• Case (earbud case)
• Dowel 1cm, 1/16mm
• Power supply

Making the Base

You'll need a base to keep the gears meshed.
I carefully drilled two small holes into the acrylic and gradually expanded the diameter with larger drill bits until they were both 1 centimeter.
Next I inserted the dowels. One to two centimeters in length is good.
The base was then complete.

Making the Driver

For the driver I used a motor that was salvaged from an old printer. The motor  needed a casing to minimize damage to the wires and for stability. An empty ear bud case that made a perfect enclosure. I used a permanent marker to outline the diameter (about 4cm) of the motor and a Dremel to cut it out. Sanding the cut out circle made the jagged edges smooth.
An additional hole was drilled in the lid of the ear bud casing for the small gear to poke through. Foam craft shapes from the DollarTree were used to accommodate motor diameter spacing and minimize vibrating. I used card stock to give the motor casing a nice DIY mechanical look. Finally four small holes were drilled in the bottom of the plastic casing. Four 3 inch dowels were inserted in the holes turning the enclosure into a upright stand. This completed the design for the gear driver. Watch the video to see this project in action. New design plans for a marble run kit are underway for the driver. Check back next week to see what I come up with.

Thanks for reading. Please check out more cool projects!