A few months ago I was persuaded to share my latest thinking on finding a solution to Bessler's wheel. I posted a design I had been working on at the time, but the action generated by each falling weight was slow and cumbersome. Although it generated some discussion I knew before I posted the details it was never going to work, regardless of any alterations I made to the design. My inclusion of five sets of scissor mechanisms was too much for a light weight design, intended to react instantly and easily. So I thought long and hard about simplifying the problem and I came up with an improved mechanism.
But this improvement sparked a completely different design, one that I’m busy installing on the old MDF disc which serves as basis for all my designs. I can’t show you yet, because it’s not finished, but I’m just making a point here about working with actual mechanisms, which I’ve done all my life. It’s so much more rewarding using actual physical material rather than relying on simming actions alone. This new design occurred to me during the process of improving an action already built. Yes, sims have their place I suppose, although if you’ve got a working model, why would you bother to sim it - if you could? But I can’t anyway.
So the model currently under construction requires adjustments to enable the fall of a weight to move the mechanism, easily. Sounds familiar but this is definitely not the same problem. Getting the pivot points in the right place takes some trial and error, not error actually, just an improved lift.
Anyway I’ll update you all on my progress as often as I can, this design is not one I’ve seen before so I’m hopeful that this time it’s a good one. It looks right on paper, but getting the sizes of the levers right and their pivot points right is not so easy.
:JC
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