DIY cardboard 7-speed manual transmission

What’s inside of a vehicle’s gearbox or manual transmission? Take a peek at the more-than-a-dozen gears that create this 7-speed gearbox, as well as how it works, with help from a DIY working model made with cardboard, paper, skewers, fidget spinner bearings, and glue. YouTuber V. Idea records each step of how it was made and demonstrates the gears, including reverse, at the end of the video. Some engineering from Wikipedia:

Early transmissions included the right-angle drives and other gearing in windmills, horse-powered devices, and steam engines, in support of pumping, milling, and hoisting.

Most modern gearboxes are used to increase torque while reducing the speed of a prime mover output shaft (e.g. a motor crankshaft). This means that the output shaft of a gearbox rotates at a slower rate than the input shaft, and this reduction in speed produces a mechanical advantage, increasing torque. A gearbox can be set up to do the opposite and provide an increase in shaft speed with a reduction of torque. Some of the simplest gearboxes merely change the physical rotational direction of power transmission.

Many typical automobile transmissions include the ability to select one of several gear ratios. In this case, most of the gear ratios (often simply called “gears”) are used to slow down the output speed of the engine and increase torque. However, the highest gears may be “overdrive” types that increase the output speed.

Related DIY reading and doing: Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines: How to Make Crazy Contraptions Using Everyday Stuff–Creative Kid-Powered Projects by Paul Long. Lots of hands-on tips and tricks shown in easy-to-follow photos, along with more than a dozen useful and/or zany project ideas.

via The Awesomer.