K'NEX Rope-spinning machine
This fascinating K'NEX model manufactures "rope" by spinning threads together when you turn a handle.
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It can be built using:
1. A K'NEX Base kit…
2. Two K'NEX gears, a K'NEX Gear medium Red (or a K'NEX Crown gear medium Yellow) plus a K'NEX Gear small in any colour…
First, assemble the fourteen 3D connectors shown in the photo opposite.
Please visit Handy Hint A4 if you need help to do this.
Now build the handle axle, by adding to a red rod:
1. An orange connector, side-on.
2. A blue rod to the other end of the orange connector.
3. Two blue spacers.
4. Two silver spacers.
5. A yellow connector, with three green rods attached as shown.
6. Another blue spacer
Slide the tan clip so that it engages with the red gear, and add:
9. Another yellow connector, with three green rods attached as shown.
10. A snap cap black.
Now build the spinner axle, by adding to a red rod:
1. A snap cap black.
2. A yellow connector.
3. A small blue gear.
4. A tan clip, with the pin pointing towards the blue gear as shown.
Slide the tan clip so that it engages with the blue gear, and add:
5. Another yellow connector.
6. Two silver spacers.
7. Another tan clip, with the pin pointing away from the blue gear as shown.
The spinner axle can now be fitted to the frame.
Test that the gears engage by turning the handle. It should feel slightly stiff to turn.
Now carefully pull a thread from each of the four reels, and tie them together with a knot.
Pass the knot through the hole in the yellow connector at the front of the frame, and turn the handle whilst holding onto the knot, so that the threads start to twist together as shown.
Whilst continuing to turn the handle:
1. Pull the knot along the side of the frame and through the hole in the purple clip…
3. …and then pull the knot across the frame to the handle axle, where it can be attached to the red rod by trapping it under a purple clip.
Your rope-spinning machine is now complete.
You will find that turning the handle twists the threads together, and at the same time, winds the "rope" around the handle axle.
What next?
Could you improve your model so that it spins eight reels of thread together?
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