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Topic for discussion.

What does rack and pinion mean, anyway?

This is where Google becomes your friend and you search "rack and pinion gear system".
Basically, it's a system where a belt with ridges (I really dunno how to explain it better) is moved by the turning of a gear.
Animated picture:

foreverphysics wrote:This is where Google becomes your friend and you search "rack and pinion gear system".
Basically, it's a system where a belt with ridges (I really dunno how to explain it better) is moved by the turning of a gear.
Animated picture:

Or the other way around. Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_and_pinion

Where do you get the rack and pinion gears? They don't sell them anywhere, and Google doesn't help.

Anonymouse730 wrote:Where do you get the rack and pinion gears? They don't sell them anywhere, and Google doesn't help.

Make your own. We do, and it's quite efficient. (Of course, we also melt and make our own lead weights, make our own paddle wheels, etc., etc.)

foreverphysics wrote:

Anonymouse730 wrote:Where do you get the rack and pinion gears? They don't sell them anywhere, and Google doesn't help.

Make your own. We do, and it's quite efficient. (Of course, we also melt and make our own lead weights, make our own paddle wheels, etc., etc.)

She's Asian. They don't like to waste money. (just kidding, it was a joke )
But she's right. You can make them at home. Take a long thin rectangle of some material, stick some vertical pieces on it. This will give you your rack. Now find something that is gear-like (circular core, with some protrusions around it) and you've got your system. Of course, I described it very simply, but it should be doable. If not, head over to a local hobby store, they might have something.

I'm just using Legos for that, it works, but it is weak

I heard that you can find rack and pinion gear from an old printer or and old camera tripod.

benk wrote:I'm just using Legos for that, it works, but it is weak

We are using Legos as well with the Mindstorm motor to drive it. Its not the strongest as you mentioned but we are just using it to pull a cotter pin so it is working well so far.