The first round, testing the feasibility of cardboard gears. To construct this i designed a set of gears in solidworks, then with some time at the computer and figuring some software issues out, converted the solidwork files into dfx files using Polytrans. Then i could import the 3d data into Pepakura very cool program which creates flat patterns for paper craft from 3d models. This process is a little sticky but if anyone has quest ill explain more in depth.

the first few cuts with single ply cardboard

so the way the patterns were created the size of the tabs to attach the gears together don't work with cardboard. There is just not enough material to keep the layers from ripping. however this just may be a scale issue but the next round of tests will be to look at alternative methods for construction.

so i moved to bristol board to finish the gears, cut much faster and a bit easier to handle.

the finished working gear set.