Hey Engineer Types... If I wanted to build a gear...

[Pmullen503]

Because you are only turning a fraction of a rotation, you don't need a continous belt. So you could use a GT2 belt and drive on your motor and make a plywood pulley of whatever size you wanted to get the speed you are looking for. Just nail the ends of the belt to the pulley.

[TimC]

Great Pat. I saw that in the guy's video and was wondering if that would work.

[Capebuild]

Tim, Stock Drive Products is a company in New York that has motion control products (gears, belts, stuff like that). You may find some helpful info on their website.
https://sdp-si.com
I've bought gears from them over the years and found them very helpful.
After watching the video link you posted of the fellow who created what you're thinking about, I see what you're after.
John

[TimC]

Tim, Stock Drive Products is a company in New York that has motion control products (gears, belts, stuff like that). You may find some helpful info on their website.
https://sdp-si.com
...

Thanks John. That site will be useful. I am waiting for that slow boat from China for the control board and gearmotor. When I get that and determine how I am going to power it and how much torque it has I will be looking at the transmission parts.

[Tomterrific]

Mount the table on the hour hand of a clock laid flat. Set the panel east when you are having your morning coffee. :-)

Tt

Opps! The clock needs to run half speed so will need reduction. Pulleys, gears or wheel.

[TimC]

Playing around with some homemade sheaves, a 12v gearmotor and some window screen spline. I had some round plywood cut outs laying around to try.

It wasn't engineered to decrease the rotation of the motor (6RPM) by a defined amount. I'm just trying to get a feel for how the reduction would work. Turns well and the screen spline surprisingly gives good traction. It also has quite a bit of torque but I really don't know yet if it will be strong enough to drive what I'm building. We'll see down the road. Still waiting for the slow boat from China on the control board and 6v gearmotor. I'm getting one RPM on the big end for every 3.5 RPM on the motor. Probably will go for a larger sheave on the output side. Should result in little to no over travel or shaking of the panel frame.

I'm still thinking the final drive will use the GT2 3D printer sheaves and belts on the final design. And the 6 volt gearmotor and tracking board rather than the 12v gearmotor. I don't want to order those until I have an idea that this will work.

Yeah, those sheaves are made from the cut offs made with a circle cutter. The large one is two cut offs glued together and the small is one cut off and just a flat piece of round plywood.