Where to Find Axles, Gears For Kinetic Sculpture?

sneakyimp writes "My brother is an architect and sculptor and wants to create kinetic sculptures powered by wind, steam, and sun. He wants to avoid electrical systems and keep this mechanical. He's prepared to cast metals for custom parts if necessary, but is hoping to find a cheap source of gears, axles, and bearings for the internal mechanical workings of these contraptions. We'll need things like miter/bevel/spur/helical gears, standard and thrust bearings, and axles." Read on below for more on the details of what sneakyimp is looking for — dismembered Capsela units won't do it.

sneakyimpo continues: "These parts won't need to support much power or torque (probably less than 1 horsepower / 550 ft-lbs). Ideally, we could get a kit which contains a variety of bevel and spur gears, a few axles, and standardized connect interfaces — kind of like a box of Legos for tinkering and prototyping. I found the Stock Drive Products site and it looks like an extensive catalog, but one really needs to know what one is looking for and I don't think we're there yet. I've also found custom gear manufacturers and cheap plastic hobby kits but these are either too outrageously expensive or ridiculously under qualified for the job at hand.

I was wondering if any of you robot builders or mechanical engineers could recommend a good starter kit with an assortment of gears or perhaps a supplier that deals in appropriately spec'ed gears rather than industrial-strength SUV transmissions."

Shop

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called a metal shop.
They make these things in bulk.

You can often buy some of the more "standard" pieces fairly cheaply if you're friendly. Anything else will need to be custom-made, which they can also do, but for a much steeper price.

bikes?

[spud603]

I'm not sure if this will fit your needs, but old used bicycles are cheap to find and full of cables, levers, cranks and gears -- all compatible with one another. (small wheels make good belt-pullies too)
I've seen some great and complex stuff made from bike parts.

Meccanno?

[plalonde2]

Meccano [wikipedia.org] is made for small scale kinetic sculpture.

Re:The Mother of all Supply Stores

[Facegarden]

thirded.

also, i think they just went out of business but i'm not sure:
http://www.trianglemachinery.com/ [trianglemachinery.com]
i'm not sure where you're located though, you kinda need to be there to know what to get.
surplus places are good when you're making custom art-like stuff.
-Taylor

Re:Your toybox?

[evanbd]

You have a music box with 1HP rated mechanical components? Now that sounds like an interesting contraption. Pics, please!

Depends on size

[WillRobinson]

As others have written there are a several places to get good parts. Of course it depends on the size of the sculpture, and weight of the pieces.

I build pick and place robots for a living, excellent resources are always good to have.

Besides Granger, McMaster there is also:

Standard Din sizes, and also american
http://mdmetric.com/ [mdmetric.com]

another good one stock drive products
http://www.sdp-si.com/ [sdp-si.com]

And If you need to handle larger loads, as I expect your sculptures to need. Seek your local power distribution company (as in gear boxes).

This is one of many (Motion Industries)
https://www.motionindustries.com/motion3/jsp/mi/index.jsp [motionindustries.com]

for a large list click below
http://search.globalspec.com/productfinder/findproducts?query=gear%20box&se=ggka&setag=MOTN [globalspec.com]

Re:Mechanical.

[glwtta]

That was intentional. I thought about add ing "...", but considered it unnecessary, as it doesn't affect my point.
What exactly makes electricly powered kinetic sculptures "unmechanical"?

Those were the four words that let you know that he meant purely mechanical, ie not electric/electronic. It's a perfectly common use of the term.

Pedantry is fun and all, but at a certain point you are just being disingenuous.

Old motorbike gearboxes?

[Gordonjcp]

And also bits of old garden machinery.

Re:Shop

[brentonboy]

Posting Anon because its directly related to me.

What kind of reason is that? That doesn't make any sense at all!

Ur Doin It Rong

[bill_mcgonigle]

You'ld probably need a pretty good idea of what you want exactly to go that route, though.

Traditionally the form of a kinetic sculpture is determined by the parts available, not the other way around. The challenge is to make something great given a whole lot of stuff that's not. Then again, most artists are poor and good scroungers.

Idea: find an old factory being decommissioned and start stripping machines. Pay slightly more than scrap if you need to.

Re:Shop

[CohibaVancouver]

What kind of reason is that? That doesn't make any sense at all

Because if he didn't post anon he'd be immediately reported as a spammer and burned at the stake for daring to post a link for a vendor with which he has a connection.

I work in the computer security arena and I've been burned on /. for the same reason, so now I too only post anon when I'm referring vendors, lest I'm immediately branded a spammer.

What a Moron for Asking!

[curmudgeon99]

What kind of artist is this guy if he is not observant enough to take advantage of the many artifacts of modern life. If he's going to build something and cast metal, how in the world is he not creative enough to just enter a junkyard or two and start exploring for things that might contain the "gears" he needs. What an ass--to imply that you could get gears from different purposes and have them do anything of the sort of meshing that is required to have gears actually do anything. I know I'm ranting but I find it shocking that someone with enough impulse to be creative would then couple that desire with the absolute obliviousness to the myriad objects in his environment. It's like the questioner grew up in a wax factory.