Why would you need a flexible 11 gear mobius strip? Well, let me ask you this. Why would you NOT? 11 adjoining hypoid gears, plus the added benefit of poloidal rotation… you just never know when that’s going to come in handy in a tight situation. Thanks to Blake Courter you can have that 11 gear mobius and print it too. It’s Mobius strip version 2.0 of the model he created eons (1 year) ago and this time he’s taken it one step further to make it twist through itself.

Mobius Strip Joy

It’s nice to see Blake has been able to work in some design time since being hired by GrabCAD. His first version of the Mobius strip was fun to download and animate, but prints revealed the gears to be too tight. The new version loosens up the tolerances and adds a super rockin’ flexible frame.

Eleven hypoid gears are arranged in a flexible 1.5 twist mobius strip. Poloidal rotation (twisting through itself) is also possible. I originally uploaded a rigid-framed version designed for SLS printing and uploaded it on GrabCAD. Several folks tried printing it with FDM and reported problems. These problems are now resolved, and I’ve moved from a rigid frame to a flexible one that makes the design much more fun.

YouTube video

Printed. Flexible. Awesome. You can download all the files to print yourself. Here’s the full part’s list along with tools you’ll need:

  • 11x Arm 1, Arm2, and Gear
  • 22x McMaster-Carr 57155K356
  • 11x McMaster-Carr 91253A554
  • 1/4-20 tap
  • 1/4″ drill

If you’re interested in being a part of version 3.0 that addresses loosening of the flexible arms and other issues, you can send a message to Blake via his GrabCAD profile to become part of the project.

bcourter-11-gear-mobius-strip-spaceclaim

bcourter-mobius-strip-01

bcourter-mobius-strip-02

bcourter-mobius-strip-03

Author

Josh is founder and editor at SolidSmack.com, founder at Aimsift Inc., and co-founder of EvD Media. He is involved in engineering, design, visualization, the technology making it happen, and the content developed around it. He is a SolidWorks Certified Professional and excels at falling awkwardly.