Storing Wild Gears 2: by Jay Heyl
Further to Jay Heyl’s post on storing smaller Wild Gears, he writes:
I was thinking some more about storage for the larger gears and rings and had a brainstorm. Here is the result.
I considered making something similar but this was less than $8 on Amazon and I figured even my time in retirement is worth more than that, so I bought it almost fully assembled. There are two minor issues. The large rings don’t stand properly in the back. The posts come up inside the ring. I had to put my largest gear as the rearmost item to give them something to lean against. Putting a heavy duty paper plate or maybe a light plastic one in the back would accomplish the same thing and is probably a better solution since it can be left there permanently.
The other issue is the smallest gear that fits properly is about 100 teeth. Anything smaller than that doesn’t rest on the side rails, and anything much smaller will fall right through. The rack ships as four pieces, with the cross dowels that hold it together needing to be fitted. As such, they could be shortened, pulling the side rails closer together and allowing smaller gears to be stored. I may cut an inch or so off of them and see how many more gears it will hold then.
I just now got this rack and haven’t used it while drawing yet, so I can’t say how well it will work in practice. I do know you don’t want to just cram in as many gears as will fit between the posts. There needs to be room to separate them so you can flip to the one you want. On the other hand, it wouldn’t be terrible to just lift out the whole group, find the one you want, and put the rest back. That would still be a lot faster than flipping through the CD case or digging through a box. Ten gears will fit between each set of posts.
Here is the bamboo dish rack on Amazon (affiliate link). They are inexpensive.
Anyone else try something like this? Let us know in the comments.
Ahh didn’t think of one of those. Good idea.
I tried a CD spindle and wasn’t happy with it. next thing I am trying is a hanging spike for the wall like the ones in the shops. I will have to wrap it with something to protect the teeth of the gears.
Maybe I should break out the sewing machine and just stitch it up.
I’ve been using this about a week now and I’m happy with it as a drawing table top storage method. It can store a lot of gears in a relatively small space and still keep them right at hand for easy access. If your gears are safe sitting out on your drawing table, it’s a decent solution.
I’ve not done it yet but I’m planning to hot glue a section of dowel across the top of the rear upright dowels to act as an additional support for the large rings. Right now I have a plastic plate at the rear. It works but it takes up too much room and looks really tacky. The dowel crosspiece would look like it was part of the original design.
I love this idea! My only concern is regarding the rings. I’m hung up on the idea that they will warp over time iif they are not stored flat. That’s the reason I opted for a pizza box type of storage. I purchased the thinner of the two Wild Gears sheets offered, so does this concern of mine have merit. If not, then I may pay Amazon a visit!
Warping is not something I considered. I don’t think it would be an issue at normal room temperatures unless some force beyond gravity is applied unevenly. If you put a pen underneath it and then put a heavy book on top it might eventually warp. The thin pieces from the Hoops set would be more at risk than any others I have. Certainly, storing them vertically wouldn’t result in warping, so you could fill the space between the posts to force them into a fully upright orientation. Even without that, as long as you have more than one or two pieces between each post, the angle is not far from vertical so I suspect it would take a very long time sitting in the same position for there to be any warping.
I don’t think warping would be a problem. I asked Aaron about it a while back and because Wild Gears are made from acrylic they should not warp. As opposed to the Spirograph-brand toy, those are plastic and I definitely experienced warping with those pieces.
Thanks for the great ideas! I’ve gone a more rudimentary, unwieldy, and not-so-artistic route but am mostly satisfied with it, though it’s a bit unwieldy. I’ve used one of the cardboard boxes the Wind Gears ship in and used putty to adhere the gears to the inside of the box, arranged by size and labeled. I can fit the Full, Compact, and Strange Shapes gear sets on the large panel of the box and one of the two side flaps (except for the large gear set frames). I like to be able to see everything at a glance, particularly when creating designs using a wheel within a wheel. That way I can see the size of the gear cutouts within the larger wheels. I took a picture but don’t see a way to upload it here. Keep the good ideas coming!
That should be Wild Gears, not Wind Gears, of course 🙂
I like the idea of having all the large gears/rings in sight and easily available but I’ve not been able to come up with anything that will work the way I have things situated right now. I don’t have a wall close enough to hang things on. Even the dish/gear rack takes up more room than I’d like on my drawing table. Where do you keep the cardboard storage?
I LOVE THIS SOLUTION!!!!