The Search for the turbo cd gear

[BlueBMW]

Official Ninja, can you document the process as you go, just in case we ever have to replicate some other part?

BMW, I was lookin forward to calling the frankenrom2 "Othelloelloelloello"  

Haha nice!

[Official Ninja]

Official Ninja, can you document the process as you go, just in case we ever have to replicate some other part?

Yeah, I'll take pics of each step of the process. Probably throw together a page on my tripod space to document it.

[vestcoat]

Hey all.  Just found the thread - very exciting!  I'll buy a couple gears when the time (hopefully) comes.   

[nikdog]

So wait, did ninja actually get a gear to have made?

[Official Ninja]

The gear got to me just before the new year. So this month I'll be talking with my brother about what things we need to order in the attempt to mold copies. 1st hurdle I see is that its so very small but a mold needs a port to inject the material and a port for air to exit. Not much room, but I don't think its impossible.

The thing that bothered me the most, is when I 1st got the gear, I installed it in my TGCD, just to see it working again after all these years. Well, it did not work. It make a small "clunk" sound like something wants to go but can't quite break free to move. This is basically the same thing it did before I opened it and found a broken gear all those years ago. I didnt want to harm the gear. So I turned it off and removed the gear. I did notice though, that I could easily move the gears with my fingers, so nothing was hung up as far as the gears. I really wonder if we make new gears, how many TGCD units will actually work in the end anyway! Also of note is when I try the TGCD with no gear, you can hear the motor turn on and spin, so its not the motor either.

I'll post more when we decide how to proceed! :-)

[henrycsc]

Chop5 and others can probably answer this better, but it's not just the gear that is the problem.  When the gear is bad, fixing any of the other things is pointless because the gear is the weak link in the chain. 
Your CD probably needs a new laser or maybe other parts too, but those can be found.  A replacement gear has yet to be found.

[nikdog]

The motor cable could be plugged in backwards (pretty sure I have done that before).

[SignOfZeta]

Um...I would not being doing anything with the gear except recasting it. Much like with donated human organs, each functioning gear basically represents a functioning CDROM2. If this project comes to fruition it won't be a problem, but at this point if you break a gear you are basically dooming a CDROM2 somewhere to not working. Sure, not every broken CDROM2 is down because of the gear, but I guarantee that if I had a gear, I could find a CDROM2 to fix with it. If I had 10 gears, I could fix 10 CDROM2s, etc. Again, this will change if the new gears get made.

[Official Ninja]

Um...I would not being doing anything with the gear except recasting it. Much like with donated human organs, each functioning gear basically represents a functioning CDROM2. If this project comes to fruition it won't be a problem, but at this point if you break a gear you are basically dooming a CDROM2 somewhere to not working. Sure, not every broken CDROM2 is down because of the gear, but I guarantee that if I had a gear, I could find a CDROM2 to fix with it. If I had 10 gears, I could fix 10 CDROM2s, etc. Again, this will change if the new gears get made.

I wouldn't spend time and money casting something I didn't make sure was the right part. I don't doubt anyone, but that was the 1st step. I happened to find out in the process that my unit has that darn warm up issue. It would have been so nice to see it boot a game though...The gear was never in any danger. Everything was free spinning and this gear has held up well. Not like mine that fell apart when I touched it!

I would have liked to see the unit work before I go forward, but I'll have to go on the fact that in slides on the shaft and seems to fit well enough.


Tomorrow I'm going to bring the gear to my job and we will order the materials. My brother has more experience with plastic casting than I, so I'm curious to see what he says when he sees it in person.

[Official Ninja]

We looked at the gear today and everything looks doable. I've already cut shafts for the mold that will be the gears center hole. I ordered mold parts and it should get to me by the end of the week. Fedex express saver shipping. My brother doesn't like that my TGCD doesn't run because if we make these and sell them to people, it would be nice to first see the finished product run and work. I'm really hoping my unit still has the warm up issue and not any other issue. This way at least I can throw the 1st cast gear in it and let it sit for a while to see if it starts.
Well, 1st things 1st. We need gears to solve the warm up issue I suppose.

[BlueBMW]

I have a unit ready and waiting for a gear if you get some samples for testing.  Infact its the donor unit of the gear you're molding.

[Official Ninja]

I have a unit ready and waiting for a gear if you get some samples for testing.  Infact its the donor unit of the gear you're molding.

Cool. I thought that unit also had the warm up issue, no?

[BlueBMW]

It does but after 10 minutes it functions perfectly. It should be sufficient to test a gear with.

[pngo]

Hi there.

I have been following this thread for the last few weeks. I would be interested in getting a few replacement middle gears.

I also think there are people on the french necstasy forum who would be like me.
Actually someone there managed to make a mould but apparently the mould broke down at some point while creating a gear.

http://forum.necstasy.net/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3332

[Duo_R]

What is the warmup issue on TGCD? Is that a cap problem?