Wooden geared window-blinds

Spirals By Steven's wooden window blinds feature a hypnotically fawsome set of wooden helical gears, exposed for extra mesmerizing stupendosity: "The raise/lower mechanism uses a system of pulleys and gears to wind up or let out two lines that are attached to the bottom bar of the blinds. This line is threaded through holes drilled along the centerline of each slat, goes through pulleys to be wound up onto a spool attached concentrically to the main gear. The gears are not really necessary for the blinds to work properly, but they really add to the coolness factor! The pinion gear could simply be replaced by a spool to wind the line up on. The two lines comes off the spool on the bottom and wraps around a pair of larger pulleys - one on each of the two planes making the corner. This arrangement has the edges of both pulleys slightly hanging over the corner by a distance that is the same as the the distance between the other pulley groove and the board behind it. The exit tangent of the first pulley is the same as the entrance tangent on the second pulley. From the second large pulley, the two lines split off and go to a pair of smaller pulleys that are vertical over each suspension point on the bottom bar and thread through the center holes drilled in each slat."

Window Blinds (Thanks, Dug North!)

[#1 posted by TroofSeeker, February 16, 2009 1:45 PM]

Long ago I wanted to make a panorama where you turn a crank and things are going 'round and 'round and up and down and back and forth, carved entirely out of wood. I love making small things out of exotic hardwoods. Maybe when I'm Mintie's age.

[#2 posted by Gilbert Wham, February 16, 2009 3:25 PM]

Functional gears on BoingBoing? Surely some mistake?

[#3 posted by rAMPANTiDIOCY, February 16, 2009 3:47 PM]

i vant vun

[#4 posted by CptNemo, February 16, 2009 4:11 PM]

@ #2 - you beat me to it.

[#5 posted by theWalrus, February 16, 2009 5:12 PM]

The neighbors are wondering why he keeps opening and closing his blinds.

[#6 posted by Wolfairy, February 16, 2009 8:08 PM]

fawsome
stupendosity
ugh.

Though-Those gears are great!

[#7 posted by Psssst, February 16, 2009 8:49 PM]

beautiful, I want a set for every window.

[#8 posted by steveg769, February 16, 2009 9:06 PM]

If you'd like to make your own blinds you can download a scale drawing (pdf file) from the web site for free.

[#9 posted by eustace, February 16, 2009 10:28 PM]

Hmmm. The first thing I thought when I saw the video was "Cool! Wooden helical gears! How did he cut those?" So I followed the link, and it turns out - that's what he's selling. The secret technique for cutting the gears. Thirty bucks to paypal and it's yours. Hmm.

[#10 posted by HornCologne, February 17, 2009 3:57 AM]

Extra points for the first Boinger to paint the gears gold, attach a broken manometer and scream the sacred word, "St*****nk!" ... I hope Ikea starts selling these soon.

[#11 posted by Alpinwolf, February 18, 2009 12:24 AM]

Funny, I went the opposite, pretty much feeling like I know how the gears are cut, I wanted the rest of the guts!

For the gears, get a primer from HowStuffWorks. There's some math involved, but not dire. Then you need either a machinist, or to home-grow some jigs for indexing the rotation of the part, and syncing the movement of the router (the one I was cautioned elsewhere about attaching to my PC) with part's rotation. And possibly a custom-made cutting head. Maybe he's selling that too.

Gear-craft is generally a high precision exercise, but I imagine the medium allows more than the usual slop. Just be glad his design doesn't use crown or planetary gears... Hey, there's a thought...

And leave the gear tooth faces unfinished, they'll slide lots better.

[#12 posted by Alpinwolf, February 18, 2009 12:32 AM]

@10

Puh-lease.

This is Woodpunk.

Or possibly Dutch.