Category: AntsAgentsAutomatons

Simple Cams and Followers

Last updated on March 29th, 2025

Ants Agents and Automatons

Cams and followers are simple but powerful mechanisms. This post introduced two of the many possibilities that these mechanism afford: first, cams and followers can be used to change rotary or circular motion into linear motion, second, cams can be rotate on their axel to generate regular timing of events.

The post begins with a how-to video showing the design of a basic cam and follower system. Below that are several external examples that show cams in motion and how different creators are using them in projects.

Video

More about cams …

Rob Ives

Automaton maker Rob Ives offers detailed tutorials and models that demonstrate and employ a variety of simple mechanisms including cams.

Check out his cams page to go further with these ideas.

And then, consider the wide range of models demonstrating various mechanisms including cams, linkages, gears and more.

Cam powered Ball Bouncer

Instagram user @engineezy_ uses double cams to set /control the timing in this synchronous ball bouncing automaton.

The Archer

Instagram user @mechanicalcreations uses double sided cams in the creation of their archer automaton:

Going Further

Check out other tangible introductions to simple mechanisms and fusion360 design ideas:

Intro to Simple Gears.

Simple Gears

Last updated on March 2nd, 2025

Ants, Agents and Automatons

This post shares some basics on creating gears in Fusion360.

At the end of this tutorial you will have a fusion design that could be printed to yield a simple gear pair like those below.

I am going to take advantage of an excellent post by productDesignOnline.com and simply point you to their video.

But before we get there, there is an important change ….

NOTE:

At 0:54 in the video below the creator accesses a script called the Spur gear add-in. The process to get to this add-in is no longer the same. The tools menu they reference no longer exists (at least in my version of F360).

You will follow the instructions at 1:07 instead.

For each gear you want to make, you need to follow these steps to load the add-in:

Press < s > to open the Design Shortcuts menu.

Type <script > and choose Scripts and Add-ins…

choose Scripts and Add-ins

A new drop down will appear. Scroll to the bottom and pick SpurGear. There are two versions – one written in C++ and one in python. For our purposes, they are identical — so pick either.

Click < RUN > once you select SpurGear add-in.

Unlike in the video, the script is NOT added to any menus as a part of this process.

The rest of the video is straight forward and excellent.

Video:

Going Further

My fav resources for all things mechanical is Rob Ives — you should check out their site.

https://www.robives.com/mechanism