Toy Carousel Mechanism

I made a mechanism toy carousel with sailboats that move up and down as the carousel rotates.

I first created the gears for my carousel rotation, as that determined the size/scale of the rest of my pieces. I used an online gear generator, exported the svg file, and imported it into my fusion360 project. I then extruded the sketches to create bodies, and extruded the middle section to cut out holes that allow my gears to turn.

I 3d printed a test set to confirm the gear design worked appropriately.

I used the middle gear as a template for the rest of my design. I first added 5 holes for the carousel poles in my large gear by sketching a circle, replicating it with the pattern tool, and cut extruding it into my gear. I then sketched a circle with the radius equal to my outer gear diameter that I extruded to create the top and bottom pieces of my carousel. I referenced the pole placements to create "bumps" that will cause my carousel poles to move up/down vertically.

I next created my carousel poles by extruding the previously sketched holes in my gear in both directions. For the bottom, I just lined up the poles with the base as I wanted the poles to rest on the base and move over the bumps to create vertical motion. For the top piece I used the poles to "split" holes in the top, allowing the poles freedom along the y-axis (the top piece will rotate with the gear and stabilize the poles).

Now that I had my horizontal gear set up, I needed to configure my second gear so that it could rotate and turn the first one. I created a simple box at the base, lined up my second gear, and used the gear to sketch a circle with the dimensions of the inside hole. I replicated that hole in my box by extruding it through, then extruded it again to create nob that connects to the gear, that the user can turn to rotate the carousel. I moved the large gear down to rest on the small gear.

I then added a simple center pole for the large gear to rotate about by extruding the hole in that gear, also in both directions.

Finally I sketched my sailboat and extruded it to create a body. I was then able to line it up with one of my poles and duplicate it in a circular pattern around my center axis, which lined up perfectly with my remaining poles.