Crafting & machines · Item
Gear wheel
Small (1 m) and large (5 m) wheels set on shafts: meshed together they change speed and direction.
In the game
How to get it
Small: a rim of planks (or 4 steel ingots) round a cogwheel, 2 wheels. Large: a double rim of planks (or 8 steel ingots), 4 bolts and a cogwheel, 1 wheel. Place them on shafts; two wheels on parallel axes whose rims touch mesh by themselves.
What it is for
Slow a motor down for a pump (best at 30 turns a minute), speed up a slow wind rotor, or send movement to a parallel line without a link.
Why it exists
There is no gearbox block: players place their own wheels and choose their ratios, like a real millwright.
The same text the game shows in its progress tree and on the item's sheet (I).
Gear wheels change the speed of a shaft line. They mesh by themselves, without any link.
How to get them
| Wheel | Recipe | Gives |
|---|---|---|
| Small, 1 m across | a rim of planks (4 cells) or 4 steel ingots round a cogwheel | 2 |
| Large, 5 m across | a double rim (8 cells of planks or 8 steel ingots), 4 bolts, a cogwheel | 1 |
The rim's matter gives the wheel its class: wooden wheels go on wooden shafts, steel ones on steel shafts.
How it works
- Place a wheel on a shaft. Two wheels with parallel axes in the same plane, whose centres are as far apart as the sum of their radii, mesh.
- The speed changes in the ratio of their sizes (a small wheel turns five times faster than a large one) and the direction is reversed.
- Each mesh loses 1 % plus 1 % per metre between the axes. A contradictory train blocks.
Tips
- A field Field pump gives its best at 30 turns a minute; an Electric motor turns 120: slow it down with a small wheel driving a large one.
- The engraved ratio on a wheel ("1:4") tells you what it does.
Right-click a block to place it, facing you. Broken, it comes back whole.
On the progress path
AT3The workshopMain path
A sub-action of the step Cogwheel, bolts, spring, coil: not needed to go on, but counted in your progress.
- BeforeAT2 · Sheets and copper wire
- This stepAT3 · Cogwheel, bolts, spring, coil