How do you make a wooden router lift?

Here’s a “neat” post for a Friday. I found a really interesting How-To guide on building a wooden router lift. An enterprising fellow up in Canada had some specific design constraints for building his router lift and he decided on using wood. You might be wondering at this point, how does this relate to gearing? Well, part of the router lift apparatus involves creating a crank, which calls for some gearing solution, which had to be made from wood, obviously.

The whole process (he’s provided step by step descriptions and photos) is really cool, but seeing how he fabricated the wooden gears is extremely interesting. You should check it out!

Gearp Application Chart

We stumbled upon a pretty basic--but definitely useful--gear application chart that helps you determine, depending on your application, which kind of gear you should use. Here's what it says under Bevel Gears,

Suitable for 1:1 and higher velocity ratios and for right-angle meshes (and other angles)...

Good choice for right-angle drive particularly low ratios. However, complicated tooth form and fabrication limits achievement or precision. Should be located at one of the less critical meshes of the train.

The entire chart is worth checking out. Even if presently, you only use one type of gear (a worm gear, say) it's good to know what other sorts of engineered solutions are out there.

Teaching Gears Young

There's a nice story out of the News-Gazette of Champaign, IL about youth education in engineering. The South View Middle School is stepping up its science-technical educational efforts and it seems to be a hit with the students. While students get to work in groups, brainstorm, and develop their math-science skills, they also engage in hands-on learning.

Eighth-graders Andrew Nelson and Joby Means, who have been studying mechanical gears and how they are used, build a bevel gear with materials from a kit.

"This was easy," Joby said, turning a crank to make the gears move. Soon, students will learn how to move the gears using a computer program.

Like Jelicia and Ashylee, Andrew said he didn't know whether he would like the pre-engineering activities, which he started in sixth grade. But Smith's classes quickly became his favorite, and he's looking forward to continuing them in high school and college.

Even if not every student--likely--in the program goes on to an engineering degree, the school is definitely planting the seeds for the engineers of tomorrow.