My final project is going to be a mechanical watch holder. The goal is to have two bevel gears attached to a base and powered by a hand crank. Above are two bevel gears that I have borrowed from Thingiverse since I am not skilled enough in CAD to make my own[1]. I also plan on borrowing the base from the same designer and adding a few modifications that will allow my watches to sit on top. Right now my biggest goals are to print out the gears above and finish making the watch attachment in Solidworks. Since the printers at the idea forge and ITLL tend to misprint a lot I plan on using a friend’s resin printer for the bevel gears. The base, crank, and other cosmetic components will be printed using the printers at the ITLL. 

One problem that I am running into is using STL files in Solidworks. Ideally, I would be able to take the gear base directly from Thingiverse and modify it, but Solidworks is very annoying when it comes to modifying STL files. To avoid this issue I plan on 3D printing the watch plate separately from the base and just use a strong adhesive to mount it to the top. 

Above is my new current plan for the final product. The base gear will be responsible for rotating the watches while the printed plate on top will hold all of them. The holding plate will also be made to look like a gear so that it does not look out of place from the rest of the assembly. For a while, I was thinking about covering up all of the gears with some sort of housing assembly to go for a more minimalist aesthetic but I think the exposed gears will look a lot cooler, almost like a drive train in a manual transmission engine. Unfortunately, the only PLA colour I have at the moment is purple so I may consider painting over the components in order to go for the aesthetic I’m thinking of. My goal is to have the hand crank modeled and the bevel gears printed by the end of the week. 

[1] https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:961943

2 Comments. Leave new

  • Heider Iacometti
    May 7, 2023 4:10 pm

    Wow Jose, those 3D renders look rather impressive! I hope the project goes well for you!

    Reply
  • Ben Fougere
    May 5, 2023 4:29 pm

    Hey Jose I think this is a great idea and like the hand crank idea, I almost did something similar in my project as well, if you painted it is there one what works the best on PLA print material?

    Reply

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