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Step 3Using Inkscape to draw gears.
Inkscape is a wonderful program! It can be downloaded for free at www.inkscape.org. Inkscape is a program that is used for vector drawing. You can think of vectors as 'drawing lines' as opposed to bitmapped images such as digital photos. Just like any new program, Inkscape can be difficult at first, but becomes very easy the more you work with it.
Start by opening Inkscape and creating a new document. I like to use letter landscape as the document size. That size fits in our laser cutter well. File->New->Letter_landscape
From there I find it helpful to turn on a grid. File->Document Properties Grids tab. Set your grid to what you feel comfortable using, I like to work in inches, but others work in mm's. It really does not matter.
Now the fun part... To put a gear on your drawing, use Extensions->Render->Gear. When I did this clock I used a circular pitch of 10 and a pressure angle of 10. Then I varied the number of teeth to set the gear size. As long as I used 10 and 10 for circular pitch and pressure angle, the gears fit! Please go ahead and try it!
Once you have drawn a gear, you will most likely need a center hole. To get a hole centered on a gear, draw the gear and draw the circle for the hole. Then select both the circle for the hole and the gear and go to Object->Align and distribute. Then click the icons that say 'Center on the Horizontal Axis' and 'Center Horizontally'.
I have attached my file for cutting the gears. It is called ClockGear3.svg and you can download it below. The green lines in the file are lines that I use for guides. I do not cut anything in green.
The stand is the tall trapazoid and the two triangles. I hot-melt glued the triangles to the back of the stand.
*** UPDATE 2/29/12 ***
If you try to download the inkscape file, it will download as something.tmp. Just rename it to clock.svg and then you can open it in inkscape.
Start by opening Inkscape and creating a new document. I like to use letter landscape as the document size. That size fits in our laser cutter well. File->New->Letter_landscape
From there I find it helpful to turn on a grid. File->Document Properties Grids tab. Set your grid to what you feel comfortable using, I like to work in inches, but others work in mm's. It really does not matter.
Now the fun part... To put a gear on your drawing, use Extensions->Render->Gear. When I did this clock I used a circular pitch of 10 and a pressure angle of 10. Then I varied the number of teeth to set the gear size. As long as I used 10 and 10 for circular pitch and pressure angle, the gears fit! Please go ahead and try it!
Once you have drawn a gear, you will most likely need a center hole. To get a hole centered on a gear, draw the gear and draw the circle for the hole. Then select both the circle for the hole and the gear and go to Object->Align and distribute. Then click the icons that say 'Center on the Horizontal Axis' and 'Center Horizontally'.
I have attached my file for cutting the gears. It is called ClockGear3.svg and you can download it below. The green lines in the file are lines that I use for guides. I do not cut anything in green.
The stand is the tall trapazoid and the two triangles. I hot-melt glued the triangles to the back of the stand.
*** UPDATE 2/29/12 ***
If you try to download the inkscape file, it will download as something.tmp. Just rename it to clock.svg and then you can open it in inkscape.
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