Geodesic Gear Sphere

TaffGoch

How do all the axles come together in the middle?"
It's a virtual model -- so, no axles.

Where does the drive motor fit in?"
It's a virtual model -- so, no motor.

So no sketchy physics plugin was used?"
So, no....

If I were to physically build this, as a sculpture, I'd use an internal geodesic frame/cage, where I'd mount 92 short axle "spindles," pointing outward, at the geodesic vertices.

Only one gear would need to be powered, as all the rest would be "pushed" by that one gear.

Mounting an electric motor, hidden inside the cage, would be trivial.

How to keep kids from sticking their fingers in the gears - now, THAT would be a problem. (I suppose, the adults, too.)

~Taff

jamalito

it is wasome

KarinaGM

YOU ARE SICK!
I'm loving it!!!

omiKron

This engine could spin the Earth forever ! Just.. speechless, awesome work

castromann

@taffgoch said:

@castromann said:

there has to be a lot of thinking behind this one. i saw your geodiscs and models in the warehouse before. where does your addiction to geodiscs come from - seems like your obsessed by these

I beg your pardon! - OBSESSED ?

I rather prefer "enamored," if you don't mind.

( "Smitten," "enchanted," "infatuated" or "enraptured" will also do )

~Taff

It's been 40+ years of fascination with the geometry & mathematical derivation of the elements of geodesic domes, which used to be closely-guarded proprietary information.

haha! ok i will keep that in mind. whatever your "relationship" with these is - this is simply great and fascinating work

TaffGoch

A simplified SketchUp model is available:
Gears Ball- 3D Warehouse

%(#BF0000)[(Clickable image-link, to deviantART]

~Taff

notareal

Hypnotic!

Goonster

This is superb!

I wondered the same thing as slimdog when I saw this though. Where would the gears meet and what could be powering it? ( just a thought)

dale

Cool indeed!
Great to see more of your amazing work.

TaffGoch

I'm gratified that you folks are liking this.

I've decided to embark upon striving to learn Adobe Flash. As my first production, I converted this particular animated-gif into an animated-flash (adding sound, as "lagniappe.")

(Clickable image)

I am, right away, impressed with Flash. The SWF-animation has much-higher color resolution (24-bit), yet the jpeg-compression can be adjusted to produce a file no bigger than the animated-GIF. 'Looking forward to learning more about Flash.

-Taff