Prototype Clay Pulley/Gear System

This project showcases simple machines working in tandem to pull a small weight. The construction of the project will mostly be made out of clay and wooden sticks (and glue).

The simple machines in this project are a pulley, wheel and axle, and inclined plane.

This prototype can be seen how a crane works. There is a motorized part (the gears) and a mechanical part (the pulleys). The gears transfer mechanical power through the gear belts and one of the gears is attached to the pulley wheel that will then transfer the power through the tension in the rope (in this case, the ribbon) between the pulley wheels to pull the weight.

Steps 1 through 4 is optional, as this part is to create an elevated position for the simple machines to do work with a ramp that connects below the simple machine. Overall, the elevated position does not change the project's core idea, simple machines working together in an unified system to pull a weight.

Self Reflection

When everything was done, I saw some issues in the final build.

The ribbon would slip off of the pulley's wheel, a simple fix would be making the pulley wheels larger and the grooves deeper. And using string instead of a ribbon, so the orientation would not change unlike a ribbon which could and did shift. Same goes with the rubber band, gluing two small strands proved to be difficult, so much so that at one of the combined ends was a large chunk of glue that would sometimes would not fit in between the grooves of the two gear wheels.

Not all axles were leveled as I expected them to be, this is due to the supporting structures not being done properly. With a second pair of hands, this supporting structure design would have worked as intended.

I do know if I continuing on and enhancing this prototype, it can become a more functional long lasting simple machine system made from clay and wood (and glue).

• Air-dry clay
• Wooden sticks
• Hot glue gun
• Glue sticks
• Cardboard box
• Scissors
• Ribbons
• Rubber bands
• Paper Clip
• Ruler
• Wax Paper
• Acrylic Paint
• Paint Brush
• Cup of Water (if needed for the clay)

To create the rectangular box shape, cut two strips of cardboard approximately 14 inches by 6 inches.

On the width side (the 6 inches side), fold the ends roughly two inches straight up. Do this for both ends of each strip.

When you place one strip over on the other strip with the flaps up (bottom strip) and down (top strip), it'll create a box with no internal supports - as you can see in the first picture showing the lengthwise side.

Note: There are different ways to create a box. I used a method that would allow me to view the supporting structures and to easily attach the two strips together.

Place a wooden stick on the inside of one of the cardboard strips with the flap going up.

Grab a pair of scissors and mark the wooden stick at the height of the flap as shown in the first picture. To mark the wooden stick, attempt to cut the wooden stick to leave a small cut in the wood. *1

Continue to cut into the wooden stick (all around in 360 degrees) to deepen the cut as shown in the second picture.

Place the smaller end of the wooden stick over the edge of a table. Then push down the longer side as to hold it in place against the table. Next, with your other hand, push down the smaller end to break the wooden stick approximately. This would look similar to the third picture, flip the stick over and as done before, push down the smaller piece to break it off. *2

Set the small piece against the larger stick. Mark on the larger stick like on the fourth picture to start the process to create another small piece.

Create 24 of these small pieces to use in the next step.

*1 Note: You can mark the wooden stick with a pencil and then cut slightly into the wooden stick to break off the piece.

*2 Note: Do be careful with this step, as splinters can appear from the broken ends of the wooden stick. Trim the rough pointy ends off by using the scissors.

Make six marks on one of the cardboard strips similarly to the second picture. On the lengthwise side, the lines are separated by 1/4 of the length (2.5 inches). On the widthwise side, the lines are separated by 1/3 of the width (2 inches).

Next, place four small sticks in each quadrant of each cross on the cardboard strip.

Two choices to attach the supporting sticks to the cardboard in the beginning (choice 1 is used in the third picture):

1) Use clay first to hold the sticks in place.

2) Use the hot glue gun to lay down a spot of glue to hold the stick upwards.

Then carefully lay down hot glue on the clay in a cross that is between the four close sticks, like in pictures five through eight . *1

Add another layer of clay on top of the cooled glue.

Repeat the process of adding glue and clay on top of one another two more times with the clay covering the last glue cross as you can see in pictures nine and ten.

Repeat the entire process of adding the four small sticks to each of the marked lined crosses on the cardboard strip. It should look similar to pictures eleven and twelve.

Add sticks between the supporting structures to strengthen the cardboard like in pictures thirteen and fourteen. *2

Cover the sticks between the supporting structures with some more clay like in picture fifteen.

Finally, paint the clay with acrylic like in the first picture. *3

*1 Note: This would strengthen the tensile strength of the clay so it would not shift side to side too much (similarly how a rebar is used in reinforced concrete).

*2 Note: This could have been done in the beginning, hot gluing down those sticks between each lined crosses on the cardboard strip.

*3 Note: Let the clay dry fully or else you'll get something similar to the first picture wear, where the lines from the brush strokes can be seen. The acrylic is used to stop the air dry clay from cracking superficially and becoming dusty. Internally, it may still crack somewhat as the air dry clay does shrink as it dies but not enough to worry about since the support structures are small and compact.

Place the unused cardboard strip on top of the supporting structures.

The bottom strip flaps will be the on the inner side and the top strip flaps will be on the external side.

Add hot glue to the bottom flap on the side it faces externally. *1

Then close down the top strip flap until it is touching the bottom strip flap. Hold it together until the hot glue cools.

*1 Note: The picture above is adding some hot glue to the edge of the flap to help connect to the top strip.

The ramp is the easiest part in this instructable.

Cut a new cardboard strip measuring roughly 13 inches by 6 inches.

On the widthwise side, fold one end two inches downwards.

Now you have a simple ramp. *1

*1 Note: To attach the ramp to the foundation from the optional creation, just hot glue the ramp's flap side against the box flap side. To see how the ramp looks attached to the foundation, view the first pictures in the instructables.

In this step, four wheels will be made: two 2 inch diameter wheels, one 1.5 inch diameter wheel, and one 3 inch diameter wheel (all by a width of about 0.5 inches).

Get a ball of clay and then squish it down into what I like to call, a pancake, like in pictures four and five. If the diameter of the pancake is not close to the desired measurement, then add or substract some clay and retry forming the pancake.

Use one of the sticks to be used as the axle to form the hole in the center of the wheel, like in picture seven. Make sure the axle is about to rotate with in the wheel somewhat smoothly.

Now it is to carve out the groove in the wheels. Use one of the end of a paper clip to slice into the side of the wheel and slowly cut parts out like in picture eight. Do this for each wheel.

This step combines the two types of simple machines into one system.

Take one of the 2 inch diameter wheels and place it on its side.

Create 6 small wooden stick pieces between the length of 0.5 inches to 1 inch.

Place the 6 small sticks in a hexagonal shape in the wheel as shown in picture 2. Not all the way through, just enough for the stick to not wiggle in place.

Next, gently place the 1.5 inch diameter wheel on top of the 6 wheels.

Carefully hold down one of the sticks and press down the small wheel. Do this for each stick to make sure the sticks went inside of the small wheel.

At the end of this process, you should have something similar to picture 1.

In this step, paint the wheels with the acrylic colour of your choice.

Mark on the top of the box of where you want the supports to be and or the area you want the wheels to be placed in, like in picture five. Make sure to leave space that would allow for the wheel length to not overlap with another wheel.

In the first picture, the axle height in first row facing the ramp is roughly 5.5 inches tall. The second row axle is roughly 3 inches tall. And the third row axle is roughly 4.5 inches. The length of the sides of the supports is between 0.5 inches to 1 inch longer than the height of the axle.

5.5 inches axle height / ~ 6.25 inches ± 0.25 inches.

3 inches axle height / ~ 3.75 inches ± 0.25 inches.

4.5 inches axle height / ~ 5.25 inches ± 0.25 inches.

Place one stick on top of the other and glue at the point they touch together.

Then make hot glue spots on the marks on the box and place the support structure on the hot glue spots. Hold it in place until the glue cools.

Repeat the above step for the rest of the support structures.

Note: Add additional glue to the base of the support structures and if necessary, add glue where the axle suppose to touch to add additional height. You can see in some of my support structures, I had to add glue on top to make the axle leveled and not leaning downwards.

Note: This part was difficult and hard to make accurate heights, a different supporting structure would be easier and more reliable.

In this step, it is about unifying the system.

Cut out 3 axles for the three supporting structures.

Hot glue one end of a long ribbon piece to the pulley-gear wheels. Specifically to the 2 inch diameter wheel portion, in the groove of the wheel, like in picture one.

Get two rubber bands that is able to fit in the grooves of both the 3 inch diameter wheel and 1.5 inch diameter wheel. Cut both rubber bands one time, making them both a single strand of rubber. Hot glue both their ends together, similarly to how picture two looks.

Insert the axles into the wheels and place them on the supporting structures.

The row closest to the ramp has the 2 inch diameter wheel, the second row has the pulley-gear wheel combination, and the third row has the 3 inch diameter wheel.

Note: The pulley-gear wheel with the ribbon goes in a clockwise direction which will make the the 2 inch diameter wheel spin counter-clockwise. The 3 inch diameter wheel will spin in a clockwise motion to move the pulley-gear wheel.

Make a small ball of clay and attach it to the other end of the ribbon.

And there we go, a Prototype Clay Pulley/Gear System.

This project was interested in how a pulley's wheel can be made from clay and how to improve on it.