Does such a gear thingy exist?

[Dustin Crops Boy]

I'm looking for something like this:

This is just a quick drawing I did to explain - not to any specific scale or anything.

Anyway - I need a gear on one side (like maybe an inch big) attached to a semi-flexible tube w/ a cable inside that would turn as the gear turned and turn the gear on the other side.

Does such a thing exist? And if so - what is it called and where would I find it?

 

[Mike J.]

Well, yeah, I think so.

I'd look at bicycle parts - I had a speedometer on my bike, it would had to have something like that...


-Mike

 

[Dustin Crops Boy]

Ah yea- speedometers - I knew I saw them somewhere

Anything else that might be a bit bigger?

 

[acerocket]

Ah yea- speedometers - I knew I saw them somewhere

Anything else that might be a bit bigger?

Try googling flexible shaft.

I have seen some on the sdp-si website before.
https://sdp-si.com/eStore/Direct.asp?GroupID=454

 

[Mike J.]

Maybe power drill extensions / attachments?


-Mike

 

[Loess]

McMaster-Carr has various flexible shafts, similar to the ones that acerocket linked. Depending on what tooling you have available, they might be a good source. They also have gears and sprockets and parts like that.

 

[RICHIES ARMOR]

Dremels have an extension that is a cable with attachments on both ends. May be able to modify that to work.

Richie

 

[GKvfx]

It all depends on how fast you need it to turn, what the torque involved is, the amount of offset from a straight line between the two gears, and the distance (length).

For something like a bicycle speedometer, there isn't much torque involved, so a flexible cable is fine. If you needed the gear to move something large/heavy, you might need a beefier linkage, and you may need it to have some sort of support (pillow blocks, for instance).

Gene

 

[skiffy]

Try googling flexible shaft.

When googling 'flexible shaft', be veeerrry careful...

 

[exoray]

It all depends on how fast you need it to turn, what the torque involved is, the amount of offset from a straight line between the two gears, and the distance (length).

On that subject, if you are talking slow speeds, low torque and minimal use you can fabricate your own fairly simple...

Get two gears with appropriate size center holes, get gears that have set screws that would normally lock them to the shaft...

Now lets say you get gears with 1/4" center holes, get yourself a length of 1/4" cable (most hardware stores will carry it) and a section of tube or hose that the cable will run inside, polyethylene tubing would IMO be perfect... Then simply run the cable though the hose, and clamp the gears onto each end... Some graphite in the tube will make for a smoother rotation... Not good for extended use or what not but if it's only for occasional use it should do the job...

 

[Dustin Crops Boy]

Cool - thanks for your tips and ideas, guys.

 

[phez]

When googling 'flexible shaft', be veeerrry careful...

lol

If it is the correct size, I would try to find gears that could be fit to Dremel flexible shaft. You know that that can take a beating out of the box.