Solo [ED]A Gaze at a Gadget Part II

[Crylon Stonecraft]

2 Summer 520 Continued Smiling at Crylon and his clearly confused face, Sona took back the quill and began drawing again. "Its alright, it'll make more sense in time. Some part, like with Architecture, is about knowing the principles and planning or drawing it out. And some is about actually doing those plans, making it a reality. I think once you've gone through the entire process from start to finish it will make more sense. Anyways, on to the last machine." Drawing again, Sona drew out a line with a curving and looping lines around it. Not all at once like with the pulley, but a slow loop almost overlapping from top to bottom. "The last simple machine is the screw. You've probable heard of those in building, right? A screw gets rotated, and takes the rotational motion, or rotational force, also known as torque, and turns it into motion or force on a line. You turn the screw, and it goes up or down, in or out of something. But like with the others, it transfers that force in a way that allows you to multiply it, and thus output more, over a smaller area, by inputting less over a wider area. Its a common theme in most of the simple machines, if you have not gotten that yet." Crylon smiled, understanding this one better than many of the others as he had indeed seen it before in building. Even in metal working. “In work metal, have seen... Vice, use this. Screw, to press on, or to hold in place. Turn, and makes go up, and holds.” Nodding at Crylon Sona continued drawing, this time making something more complicated. Then as always she turned over the quill to let Crylon copy them as best he could. "Right, that is a good example. It can be more complicated, but at its core a screw is an inclined plane, like we talked about before, which has been wrapped around a cylinder in the middle. Some have a casing, an outer shell. Some are only the screw. Some have other pieces, nuts and bolts, some do not. Depending on how you need it, or are using it, these elements may or may not be needed. Some will have a matching slot within, a hole through it with threads similar to the screw edges but mirrored which stops too much of the screw from going through at once and makes it more consistent in its motion. Like your vice. Some will not, like screws in wood. Now look at this." Checking the new diagram, Crylon saw Sona had drawn... Something else. It was a screw with a casing, with... An indication something was going in or being pulled in one end, and something was being pushed out the other. "Something else you should know. The width or tightness of the levels of the screw affects its efficiency. Its multiplier of force. Also, with screws, it is much more common for friction, we talked about that earlier, to be an issue. Which can make it less efficient, if its grinding and pressing on things as it turns. You might even need to lubricate them to keep them moving well and without losing turn to friction. But, it also means unlike the others, going backward is less of an issue. If you stop turning or unturning, usually a screw will not do anything, rather than undo itself when left alone. Make sense?" WC: 573

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Crylon nodded in understanding, having a better grasp on this concept perhaps in part to its physical and mechanical nature. More so than the others, which were machines he did not so often use. Or at least, like in the case of the wedge, did not realize he had been using. "Now look at this. Try to copy it down. This is a common application of a screw. A pump screw. It is solid, so water does not leak out as it moves. The bottom will be placed in water. As the screw moves and turns it lifts the water upward by the turning, as you crank. When it reaches the top of the screw, the water comes out. This would let you raise the water to a higher level, say to... Drain a hole. Or say it was in a well, this could be another method of lifting the water. Probably not as common, as its not perhaps as easy as the earlier wheel and axle method in some regards. Mainly, as I noted earlier, due to friction. Loss of energy due to friction is a constant thing you must watch out for in your devices." Crylon considered this issue, pondering the problem. “Is anything can do, to fix?” Thinking it over for a moment Sona watched Crylon make his machine diagram, before responding. "Well, its not so much something that you can fix... Water being involved can help, as can other lubrication. It keeps things moving, flowing. Lessens the rubbing and friction. But then, water can also be a problem. Say with rope, water will degrade rope over time and wear it down. And over time friction will wear away at material. Say, wearing down the teeth of gears, the poky bits at the edges. Even if used correctly. Everything is a trade off. Wear and tear from time, that is why I need to replace this most recent gear. I can only maintain things so long, eventually parts need replacing." Counting silently in his head, Crylon realized something then. “Is say six. Six simple machines. Is all?” Smiling once more Sona watched as Crylon finished his diagram of the pump screw before responding. "Yes. Everything is derived off of that. Then you have offshoots. Say, a spring. That is often used in clocks. A spring is sort of a screw, or an inclined plane, but not quite. But made of things that are more stretchy. Elastic. But generally metal. They are made into a coil, and turned that way. And then when force is applied, it compresses, tightening. This can be a method of capturing energy for use later." "In a clock say, you wind a piece, which tightens the spring and stores energy in it. That energy is slowly released, and works its way through other pieces. Gears and things, which change the force and make hands and things move at different speeds due to their different sizes. But done in a specific fashion so that time is kept. See in that example many different machine types are combined into one overall machine, the clock. That is what gadgeteering is all about. You find a problem. Derive a solution. Plan it or draw it out, design it. And then you make the thing. Now, why don't we try something a bit more practical?" WC: 557

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Crylon spent a few moments mulling over everything Sona had said. Which was quite a lot in truth. He felt he grasped the edges of a few things, but still had only the barest understanding of much. “So... Is ready make gear?” Sona smiled and shook her head, pointing up at the roof again. "First things first. An important skill for a Gadgeteer is to be able to examine and diagram an item or object. You can plan something out from scratch, but its much faster to replicate something someone else made. In this case, the sawmill. Now, I don't want you to do the entire mill, that would be a lot for your level. But see that gear there? Its the one we will replace. I want you to diagram it, its shape, everything it connects to directly, and the next thing each of those connect to. No further than that, but that is a task in and of itself. Do that and I'll show you more. Here, a fresh sheet." Taking the offered parchment Crylon looked down at the paper, spending a moment to clear his mind. He had been given quite the task, but he was not one to balk at such a thing. Then he did what he always did when facing a huge problem. He broke it into smaller chunks, each one manageable on their own, plotted out the plan of addressing them, and then took the first step. He realized the first thing he needed was a guide for the final full diagram. Something simplistic, stylistic, but that he could refer to and label to keep the larger one straight. Drawing off in the corner of the page, Crylon did a small X. That was the gear they would replace. Connected to that was a rod, which he did as a single line off shooting. There was also a gear above and another below, which he drew as two circles with an X inside of them. That was everything directly connected to the main gear he was focused on. Next was the rod, which connected to an gear. Next to it was... An axle. Wheel and axle. But that was beyond two contacts, so he did not include it. The two gears he took one at a time. One had a gear below of a smaller size, and a gear above of a larger size. The other gear had another axle connected to it, with a point of contact by a rope. A pulley. So a pulley was connected to the second gear. Running through it all he made sure he had it all straight. A gear in the middle. A rod off of that, with a gear off of the rod. Secondary gear a, as labeled, had a small and large gear below and above. Secondary gear b had a pulley rope attached to it. Looking over his small diagram Crylon checked his work against the roof a few times, until he was satisfied. Now that his guide was done and labeled, he could begin on the actual diagram. WC: 516

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Done with his mini diagram, more of a simplified diagram of his actual diagram, Crylon began on his actual diagram. Per Sona he needed to make this detailed, which he felt meant getting everything correct. The orientation of each part. The size compared to one part and another. Scale. The actual shape, down to the design of the teeth. It was only as he began that Crylon realized what Sona had meant before. This was quite literally a serious undertaking. He started with the gear. As he moved closer by climbing atop a box he pulled over, he realized it was not truly toothed as he had at first thought. More so it was... It was not pointed at the end, more like a tapering flat end. Each tooth of the gear tapered slightly as it rose up, only to come to a flat end. Then it tapered out on the other side as one went down towards the main section of the gear. There was then a small gap along the curve of the central portion before it rose again at the beginning of the next tooth. And so on, and so forth.All the way around the gear. By looking at the next gear in the line, he could see how they matched up. The two meshed, grabbing each other as they turned, with either of the two opposing gears. And the rod that connected did so more by... Well stabbing through the gear. The rod turned by its connection to the pulley, which turned the connected gear, and that gear turned the other two gear. He also realized then that the two gear, the big and small, were connected to one of the earlier levers. They also seemed to be... Adjustable, or detachable. It looked like when the lever was pulled that way, the one gear was pulled sideways, far enough that it would disengage from the main gears teeth. Which meant only the other gear would be in contact. The other gear had a similar arrangement by a lever, which could pull it to the side. So it was possible the central gear could be connected to one, the other, both, or neither gears. All, he assumed, for a different purpose and output. When Crylon had first looked at it he had not realized this, but could now see the connection. But then, Sona had said he did not need to draw the pieces beyond two degrees of separation, she had not said anything about looking at them and understanding what they did. And by doing that, he was better able to understand each part in the whole. Returning to the paper Crylon made a crude but roughly accurate sketched of the gear. He made a circle, and then bisecting the circle with a line multiple times with a curve he drew the teeth. The gear had sixteen teeth. He drew each side of these sixteen teeth one by one, and then came around again with a line one by one to cap off the end of each tooth. At the end of this he had a simple but passable copy of the main gear. Which was one of many parts of the overall diagram he was working on, he reminded himself. WC: 545

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Getting back on top of the box, Crylon got a good measure of the size of the other two gear and their teeth, before returning to the parchment. This was tricky, since it was not enough to just get them accurate in shape. He also had to make them to scale to the other gear, so that all of the drawing was to scale with itself. He did not have enough room to make the entire thing to actual scale, which meant each had to be shrunk down and then made to the correct scale from each other. Right now he was trying for roughly half scale, 1 to 2 ratio of drawn to actual, which seemed suitable enough. Comparing the actual sizes to the scaled ones, he worked out some rough sizes and began to depict them. He realized then that this would all be much easier if he had some chalk or something to mark with, and something to measure with. Then he could detail the dimensions for each part more accurately, and then scale it, and measure each item again before drawing them to keep each part at scale. Or he could make a detailed actual size diagram for each part, and then a scaled overall diagram with each part labelled to refer to the full size diagram. As he pondered this, he realized this was probably what Sona had done and did. But, perhaps as a test, she had him do this first diagram without it. Or perhaps she hoped he would figure out what needed to be done by himself? He would know better for next time. As with anything, he realized, he got better with each attempt. He learned from each mistake, each failure, and did better the next time. He noticed as he drew that the larger and smaller gears were similar to the middle main gear, only of a different size. And in their number of teeth. The smaller gear was roughly half the size of the main, and had ten teeth. The larger gear was roughly double the size, and had twenty eight teeth. Having drawn the previous ones he was a bit better at drawing the others, starting with a circle and then moving a line in and out to form the teeth. Now though those teeth were fitted within the gap in the middle gear. With a series of short straight dashes he sealed off each of the ends of the teeth, ending with the three gears jointed together. Once that was done he drew a rod through the middle gear at an angle, leaving him down with the first degree of separation from the middle gear. As he paused Sona returned, checking over his work. She paused for a few moments, examining it, before shaking her head. "Start over, its not to scale." “But, is... Is have to measure, to mark?” With a smile Sona went over to the chest which held her papers. with a grin she drew out a fresh sheet of parchment, a box of chalk, and two rulers. One cloth with measurement tickers, an the other solid wood with tickers. Turning to Crylon with her grin, Sona simply replied "Why didn't you ask?" WC: 539

[Reed]

Grades Awarded!

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Crylon Stonecraft

Skills

• Drawing: 5
• Gadgeteering: 5
• Observation: 2
• Organization: 1
• Socialization: 4

Lores

• Gadgeteering: Screw
• Gadgeteering: Friction
• Gadgeteering: Spring
• Gadgeteering: Diagramming a set of gears

Awards & Retribution


Notes