Introduction+some help needed:)

Gaieus

Best is to make a component of a "tooth" there and make a radial array.

If you hide some inner faces and matching edges, you can even get a smooth transition between the wheel and the teeth.

lamesh99

thanks for all the help, guys! i made a model of my screwplate, i'll post it here so someone else can use it. one more question, how can i taper the top of the gears? i tried a bunch of plugins, but none of it seemed to work for me.
anyways, thanks for the help!

simple gear+helix screwplate.skp

TIG

lamesh99

this looks great. how did you apply the tapers? i can't really tell from the pics. Thanks!

TIG

I edited the one 'two-teeth-component' part.
I drew the edges and PushPulled the 'teeth' up - much as you had inside your groups.

I then used the Tapemeasure tool to offset guidelines [seen dotted] from the 4 edges inwards by 1mm [you choose what dimensions you want].
I then drew another line over each guideline on the top surface.
I then 'reformed' the teeth with tapers, one at a time.
I selected the unwanted edge [at the right-angled corner] and use the Move tool to relocate the edge over the line draw where I want the taper to end on the top face.
The vertical face slopes over with the moving edge that it's attached to, the end faces of the teeth also distort to follow the new tapered form as it then narrows near the top.

Completed the tapering for all 4 edges.

Note that there are several other ways of making these 'tapers', but this one is quite simple...

Finally Erased the guidelines and then exited the component edit.

Used Rotate+Ctrl x23 to make the copies of the component around the circle, snapping to the start/end of the two-teeth-component.

Note how adjusting one instance will change all the others at this stage...

Finally Explode the components into one collection [if you want]...

lamesh99

i did it like that exactly, but i obviously got it wrong somewhere. when i used move on the top lines, a part of the small plane on the outside rim of the tooth was erasde. i'll just keep trying:)
Thanks again for the help!

lamesh99

i got it right, finally:) thanks, again!

Jean Lemire

Hi folks.

See this SU file for ideas.

The same principle could be used for tapered teet instead of pointed ones.

Horizontal gear.skp

lamesh99

thanks for all the help!
one more thing is very interesting to me: SU physics. i would like to make a model with moving parts, hinges etc. any advices?

mitcorb

Hi, lamesh:
You asked for advice regarding Sketchyphysics. My advice: Persevere. Read the SP subforum, check out the FAQ, Watch the YouTube videos. Dive in, and ask questions. There are several folks with plenty of insight there.