Rose Engine with Wild Gears

A reader, Steve White, has been experimenting with using Spirograph pieces and just recently, Wild Gears, on a machine called a Rose Engine.  A Rose Engine is a kind of lathe that can produce spirograph-like patterns in metal and other materials. The Rose Engine has shaped disks called rosettes that create the pattern. The results are pretty amazing, with patterns that you probably couldn’t produce any other way.  Here is a video of Steve explaining some ways he has integrated Spirograph pieces:

Aaron Bleackley, creator of Wild Gears, programmed a 1.000-inch hole in the middle of some of the Wild Gears so that they mount on Steve’s machine, and he’s starting to experiment with them.

This photo shows a small square Wild Gear mounted with a large wheel with 135 teeth to produce the pattern shown.

“This is the spring that pushes the head stock of the rose engine forward against the smaller gear. A big gear on the spindle is fixed in place, and as I hand crank the spindle, the large gear messes with a small gear. That creates the pattern on the paper.”

Showing his setup for previewing the pattern on paper to be drawn by the lathe.

“I had to make a holder for the gears that fit my Rose engine. Now they are in order and easy to find. Also right next to my machine. ” ~ Steve White

At this stage, Steve said, “For now large gears are on the spindle and another goes around the outside edge [epitrochoids]. But with new tooling I could come up with a way to run a gear on the inside [hypotrochoids].”

A day later, he had found a way to run the gears on the inside.

“Now I can use wild gears inside and out. Cool shit is about to take place. This was my first try.” ~ Steve White

One more day and he had produced this design cut in plexiglass.

Design cut in plexiglass by Steve White on his Rose Engine

Steve’s YouTube channel has lots of tutorials about using the Rose Engine: https://www.youtube.com/user/swhitefrog/videos

We’ve had a bit of discussion about Steve White’s Rose Engine in the comments on this page, but it would be better to have them continue here in the comments below. You can ask him questions about it and hopefully he’ll reply – and you can also leave comments on his YouTube channel under the videos.

Steve White lives in St. Louis MO, if anyone lives close and wants to collaborate or explore.

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