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I made a precision gearbox - with NO GEARS.
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- Published on Apr 17, 2026
- If you want to build your own Cyloidal drive, let www.pcbway.com take care of the machining.
This was one heck of a project, but I made it in the end. A (nearly) zero-backlash 4th axis for my home made milling machine.
We've got merch! notanengineer....
If you want to follow the projects a little closer, head over to / notanengineer .
@InheritanceMachining had to build a bigger box of shame because of me, go watch that NOW: • How a machinist does w...
Bambu Lab Store: (affiliate)
shareasale.com...
Sources:
@HowToMechatronicsWhat is Cycloidal Drive? Designing, 3D Printing and Testing • What is Cycloidal Driv...
@LeviJanssenHas a lot of great videos on cycloidal drives
@jamesbrutonalso has a lot of great videos on cycloidal drives
the best look inside a real cycloidal drive I could find: @arduinoversusevil2025 (AvE) - BOLTR: SUMITOMO CYCLO GEARBOX | Zero Backlash! • BOLTR: SUMITOMO CYCLO ...
Cycloidal Drive Parametric Equations - blogs.solidwor...
Fusion Script I modified: capolight.word...
My modified version for drawing epitrochoids: pastebin.com/0...
@ROBRENZ's large bore laps: • MAKING AND USING LARGE...
Solid toolpost mount inspired by @StefanGotteswinter 
Science & Technology
I think I'm gonna need a bigger box
This was such an awesome gag to see. Reminds me of This Old Tony and Clickspring. One day i will start a channel in my own shop and hopefully get big enough to do a collaboration with IM.
You will need bigger box, but he will need "crate of shame"
The first time watching "not an engineer" made me subscribe to InheritanceMachining😂😂. Waiting for your video of this new element added to the box of shame.
could be a fun side project building one tho
Definitely got my click 😂!
This man ACTUALLY sent his first design to Inheritance Machining just for a 20-second gag.
The most expensive bit so far. Worth it.
Shows commitment. Respect.
@NoEngineerHerewell it gained you a view and a new subscriber (me) that wouldn't have seen you if it weren't for that small bit lol
@kshepthedrummer+1
Worth it!
The Inheritance Machining cameo was everything i never knew i needed ❤
fr
When I was watching the intro I was thinking "did I see Inheritance Machines box of shame or what the hell did I see?". Glad to be right. Lol'd when his cameo began.
Two my heroes in one video!
@MadcapPanic 15min mark roughly
That was awesome
0:53 Remember. We don't do these things because they are easy. We do them because we thought it would be easy 😅
Said one Joseph Bizzlington
The PCBWay ad was legitimately useful. I absolutely did not know they do machined parts.
I didn't even realize it was still an ad after the first half...
In fact they are so good that they drove that local shop out of business.😅
@benjaminh5886 yeah, i dont want to know what tomfoolery they pull off to be able to make parts like this shipped across half the world for that amount of money. i live after the motto that the more something gets sponsored on youtube, no matter how good, the further i stay away from it.
great to see the box of shame has international parts now 😂
Gday mate sound engineer here. If you use the bigger desk based soldering irons with the spring holder you’ll get a much cleaner vocal recording.
"Gday"?
Another wank boy too tired to write?
I just use a modified crackhead lighter and a ice pick no wonder my audio is so bad
I think that's a modified earthworks M50, isn't it? I would think that's pretty clean, but agree that it might be a bit sterile-sounding. Maybe the mod will allow for some added low-end warmth.
Hot mic!
Does that one use 120V or 220V phantom power?
Weirdly starting to believe youre in fact an engineer....
I wish people would stop with these rumours.
lolz😂
Did you just assume his degree?
@NoEngineerHere You could always start saying "I'm an enginear-enough." :grin: (T-shirt/mug/etc. merch drop, perhaps?)
@KeithOlson difference between a scientist and an engineer is that good enough is enough for an engineer.
23:07 this is a war crime
I never understand why I am attracted to engineering problems that I will never have.
23:05 Classic blunder! Never wear open toed shoes in a machine shop. They trap swarf like nobody's business. Always do your machining barefoot!
Print toe caps for your chanclas. Worked for me.
barefoot is a bit too much protection for my tastes, I like my wang out and about near the spindle, lead screws, and thread feed when machining, which of course disallows the use of pants.
Nude under a leather apron like "I did a thing" is the only way for an Aussie to do machining/fabrication imo
(That one shot where he is dancing, barefoot and nude except for a leather apron, *on top of his lathe,* nearly gives me a heart attack)
According to some Bangladeshi casting and machining videos I’ve seen, Safety Sandals are absolutely the best way to go while working with hot and sharp pieces of metal.
i put my feet in a subway footlong
I get it now. This channel is you building tools so you can build more tools. The tools aren't going to be doing anything more than upgrading themselves.
Can't wait for this guy to kick off the singularity in his garage machine shop in an effort to create tools to make better tools
Bootstrapping!
Did you see the 3D printer that prints itself, so it can make bigger stuff as time goes by? That is what a machine building machine is like😂
The factory must grow
I can't think of anything more peak civilized gentleman than building tools to make better tools.
Only savages stop improving their tools.
That Inheritance Machining bit got me, what a colab.
Speaking engineer to engineer:
A cyclodal drive is not backlash free by definition, it relies on the accuracy of your production tolerances.
In theory, the way the cyclodal drive works, you have a lot of points of contact at any given moment. Take in consideration production tolerances and the concept is heavily overdefined. This can only be made to work by having either compliance or a combination of certain production tolerances and a matching amount of clearance (play, thus backlash).
This said, a cyclodal drive is a very interesting gear mechanism, offering very high reduction for the volume it consumes.
The inherent low backlash is presumably due to having a high number of tolerance fields overlapping with their respective position errors, effectively lowering your effective clearance.
Anyway, great engineering and machining, you are very talented!
Thanks. Doesn't every backlash solution require preload to some degree?
@TimHayward and that's why closed loop PID control exists. You can get some insane accuracy with encoders and a feedback loop.
The 1st law of engineering may be, "Never make what you can buy." BUT, the 1st law of machining is, "Never buy what you can make."
Hahahaha! That's what machinists do. Make things all day.
As a swiss cnc machinist some of this kills my soul but you are very talented and intelligent.
It must be the Swiss in me. Working on getting that passport so I can come and see how it's really done.
pure engineering
You should hear him yodel!
The sad part is that you guys are all joking about how he is cutting corners, and I don't even know how it is supposed to be done. Some one should start doing reaction videos so that people with 0 knowledge like me can learn.
As a Romanian scrap collector, tell me where you live, before you will go to Switzerland
I love how, when you started this project you were like "I'm not confident this thing can cut a circle." and then at 18:24 you evolved to "f@&k it, if it can cut one circle, it can cut *TWO* circles"
That is the CNC machining way just send it
I felt the first mention of "side project" as a foreshadowing. I'm glad I wasn't disappointed. I can't believe the box of shame has something with a complete lack of chamfers.
Made me think that one of them inspired the other, but being this is my first video from this channel, I can't figure it out yet.
@NOLAfugee IM has been going a bit over 2 years, and NTE is about 8 months old.
I felt that one too. I was wondering. That was amazing!
This is the second video I have seen from you and yet I can already tell you're the type of person to start a project that requires 10 other projects and not even realise that you did 10 other projects just to make an every day item. I am completely here for it though 😂
29:25 finally the onion chopping contraption is finished!
That soldering mic might put your eye out, mate.
Only if you look at it funny
I get the impression he doesn''t give two flux... 🙄😂
😎👍☘️🍺
These projects are so impressive - absolutely love that the IM box of shame got used
Once I've got the 4th and 5th axis set up, I'd consider taking orders for rocket components 😉
@NoEngineerHere I'm here for it! May your skies be blue, and your swarf never land between your toes.
Welp, now there are three cool channels that have made an appearance in this video, although I shouldn’t be surprised to see BPSspace watching this channel.
I wouldn't be surprised at this point if This Old Tony showed up.
Btw, love your channel as well!
@NoEngineerHerewould you say your CNC will be built different?
It's like watching an Australian version of This Old Tony
Machinist Theatre at a high level.🤩
Bit too much of him in frame though, maybe he could learn to do things with only his feet
Yeah nah, we saw his face.
… aaand, I didn’t hear him say “Skookum” a single time..
Iss all Tiny
Do i know what’s going on, no. Do i like it, yes.
A gear box with no gears, its a box.
the Patreon plug in the overlaid subtitles during the [hispanic?] BGM was kinda spicy
I liked it
💃
@NoEngineerHere what the name of the song ?
Holding a soldering iron like a microphone alone was already worth the like. Truly a masterclass on what a RUclips video should be.
That's what drew my like and subscribe lol
has he somehow accidentally poke his soldering iron into his nose while talking?
Should be an old fashion pipe.
I hope the trend of makers sending Inheritance their scrapped parts catches on
The way the gears clunking lined up with your delivery of “back lash” at 0:17 is clever
him: I'm not an engineer
also him: ** engineering **
Oh man, sending it to Inheritance Machining's box of shame was genius! Subscribed.
That’s got to be the best pcb way ad ever
Jlcpcb tends to be cheaper… lol
Back when I decided to prove to myself that I still knew how to do CAD, I designed and 3d printed a cycloidal drive.
I also designed and 3d printed a harmonic drive some months later. Good times.
Would you care to share your .STL somewhere?
@Slacker2016 hello!
If they ain't gears it cannot possibly be a gearbox. Not difficult is it
@420StepsFromHellWhat's up fellow clippy
17:15 Its even funnier the second time!
Incredible machining, and incredible animations! This was really entertaining story telling, combined with some nicely timed humor. I can't wait for more!
FINALLY SOMEONE WHO SPEAKS IN HUNDREDTHS OF A MILLIMETER INSTEAD OF MILLIONTHS OF A FOOTBALL FIELD
Also at 22:10 dude knew exactly what he was saying I don't believe in his innocence.
Millimeters are way easier the thousand on a crapy inch....
@yanikivanov Why? They are just as precise as each other. It makes sense he uses metric because he is Australian if he was American or Liberian or even British then why wouldn't you use the measurement system that makes the most sense to you?
@phinox60because fractions are fucking stupid when you are trying to be precise.
@Drazard womp womp. freedom system prevails.
@Justin-lc8wk 95% of the world uses metric 😅
ahh yess the casual cameo of one of my favorite machinists is top tier, also that lathe crash made my soul jump
This must be the best video I have ever watched for the last 30 minutes and nine seconds!
love how he uses a solder iron as a microphone
I always love watching people carefully remove something really awkwardly from a box, only to immediately cut the box up and place it in recycling.
No idea what you’re doing, but the deadpan humour you’re delivering with it is keeping me watching. Love it!
That side project / ad read was class
Very glad to hear 🙏
The quality if your videos and everything you put out on your channel is legitimately insane. That doesn't even take into account the size and age of your channel, if you do take that into account, you're on a whole different level.
Thank you for making awesome content, you rock!
This is why the first version should be 3D printed. You can see the entire assembly work and verify your ideas BEFORE you cut any metal.
This is an incredible achievement in mechanical design! Manufacturing such a low-backlash assembly requires extreme precision. Our specialty is delivering CNC machined parts with the tight tolerances and perfect surface finish this drive deserves.😀
Thats an impressive build 🥸😃
17:40. Good thing you had Leeloo to help you lift that new bandsaw.
Multi pass
Chicken good.
She's ripped
This was my first of your videos. This was hilarious. The soldering iron microphone, the dryest humor. Love it
That reminds me of explosions and fire
pure engineering
Yeah, it took me a couple seconds to realize it wasn't a mic, legit double-take
When you showed the blue chips on your sandals made my stomach jump
For me, you’re a genius for knowing this. For geniuses, you’re a bright kid.
As an engineer, I absolutely loved your time-warp effect ❤❤
...and also your creative use of translated lyrics subtitles between 18:00 and 20:00 was just genius! First casually building confidence, then sneaking in the message 😂😂
Thank you for an absolutely wonderful video!
A not-engineer sends the culmination of countless hours of work to an engineer. Engineer promptly stuffs said project into a box of shame.
Despite the forewarning of the lathe crash, I still got a jolt of adrenaline when it hit.
Love your work 👍
That lathe clip in the intro
It lives rent free in my head
@NoEngineerHereI am a Machinist, and I accidentally selected a feed lever the wrong way once it was .6mm/rev where I wanted .3mm/rev it was going at 400rpm and the 50kg chunk of metal was on a bit of a angle and stalled the lathe instantly I thinking just how bad might of been if it was not a small part in a small lathe
I’ve got a lot of respect for you for on this. Quite annoys me when people are so obviously just trying to market to you and make money from you but will lie to your face and swear they are not, and claim they are just trying to help you.
“You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything”
That soldiering iron is such an amazing conductor of vocal energy.
This is a final test, a true engineer would never ever think of doing a cycloidal reduction himself. Never, no chance.
For future iterations: such high precision circular patterns should be made by indexing the workpiece with dividing head while keeping mill XY locked. Mill will always have some backlash and XY mismatch as well as XY perpendicularity error.
All of these together will create hot mess when absolute position and circularity are important.
I had the same thoughts - thats the real reason I mounted everything on the rotary table at the start. But then I thought - screw it, lets see how it goes.
@NoEngineerHere also as you said in the video that coupler is flexing a lot and a stiff one I belive will drastically improve the flex. It is designed to flex to reduce stress from jerking movements but thats of course exactly what you dont need.
What a beautiful piece of engineering.
I truly appreciate the fact that he put subtitle translations to the random song that played
Box of shame - went to highschool with a few girls that could run that title.
When I saw the bit about the box of shame, the parts being packed up and DHL I just about twigged before IM strolled into view. Definitely the right home for those parts. H'mm that gives me an idea ... I had parts jumping out the lathe spindle this weekend that I'm ashamed of ....
IM might need a bigger box if all of us send him our failed pieces.
@schwuzi 😄
@schwuzi I kinda like that guy, I'm not sending him my Ex.
Cue the IM subsidiary "Recycled Shame". Motto "Ship your shame to the other side of the planet, where something good might come of it. When the bin's full."
To get you back you back for your boring bit crack. I watch a documentary last night on TV. It was about how the hulls of Super tankers are put together. It was riveting!
Dude you're getting into the realms of farmcraft101, TOT, old AvE and so on in my book. I get excited like a kid when you upload. Good jerb
This guy makes me a better surgeon. The obsession with perfection is welcomed and motivating. Love it.
You know someone’s an experienced lathe operator when you see those blue chips
I really enjoy your sense of humor and talent.
As an engineer and a fellow countryman an hour up the F3, it’s so nice to hear the technical term ‘rooted’ in use on RUclips.
I beleive it is in fact a "but"
As a mechanical engineer, I never knew a youtube video could physically harm me so much just by watching it.
I love it
I like how the mic isn't even on the soldering iron, you're just holding it like one.
What I need from a gearbox is some more alcohol. Love your vids 😊
Man you really outdid yourself on this one! The cameo, your wife/girlfriend/whatever shouting wtf, the project, loved it! Became a patreon after having laughed for a few video's, worth it. :)
Dude! You're married to Leeloo from Fifth Element!? Sweet! (also, cool project. loved the IM gag)
I don't even want to build that sentence....
Thats a Hot Mic!
The soldering iron "mic" is a nice touch.
I was subconsciously waiting for him to suck on it like a hookah
I don't have the money nor the intelligence to do the things you do. I've turned wrenches on and off for 25 years. I enjoy discovering how things work even if I don't completely understand the details. I get literally giddy with excitement when you release a new video. Keep them coming! ❤
Weird, I've never found the on/off switch on my wrenches . . . . :-)
Not everyone who graduates with an engineering degree SHOULD be considered an engineer. You know more than most about machining, and machine design as well. Really enjoyed your video.
This is absolutely true. I knew an engineer where I worked. I didn't realise how smart he wasn't until he went home one night and didn't realise that he had got on the wrong train. When he suddenly realised, instead of going to the next station, getting off and catching a train back to the starting point and then getting on the right train.... he decided to force the doors open and step out onto the platform as the train was gaining speed. His legs were not working at a pace commensurate with the train speed and when his feet came into contact with the platform he cartwheeled and broke his shoulder. He may have gained an engineering degree but he was devoid of any common sense. No joke, this is a true story.
which is why we have different engineering degrees...
@chrispy104ktypical chemical engineering moment. I'm omw into a chemical engineering degree and have exhibited similar levels of stupidity, but if you need me to measure etch rates down to the angstrom? Psh I gotchu
That first sentence has some validity. Years ago when I was much younger I worked with a recently graduated electrical engineer. We had a problem with an overhead hoist that rode on an I-Beam rail. Well, it wouldn't move when the dongle/pendant button was pressed. I had some experience in trouble shooting electrical problems as I had several years of experience. Anyway, I climbed up to have a look at the connection at the plug interface. What I found was that the metal pins inside were were not making good contact. I removed the strain relief clamp for the cable and let it dangle and this allowed the contacts to actually make a better connection. I re-tested the dongle pendant button for operation and it worked again. When I climbed down, this young "electrical engineer" said this to me.... "Can you believe that the cable clamp was stopping the electrical flow?" He eventually left the electrical engineering field some time later.
Impressed by the sound quality of that soldering iron.
You are not an engineer. You are something often better than an engineer. You are a craftsman.
You got Leeloo The Fith Element to help unbox your bandsaw. Respect.
Came here to say this!
Milla Jovovich played the part of Leeloo
@frankwolstencroft8731 blasphemy Milla Jovovich is played by Leeloo!
@StephenTack Milla was born in Lviv, as was one of my daughters in law
Mate the standard of your work for someone claiming to not be an engineer is nuts. You create some of the most precise things I've seen on RUclips from any channel that's not a company or Clickspring, another Aussie, (is it something you drink?) but the 2 of you work at virtually opposite sides of the scale. The Inheritance Machining gag was top notch another thing your channel brings to the machinist space, a bit of fun not taking something, you obviously do very seriously, to seriously something until now I had to rely on This old Tony for. Thank you
It’s gotta be the Vegemite…
@Turnipstalk so you don't watch inheritance Machining then? The bloke who runs that is exactly that an engineer who does top notch machinists work on his channel. Which a part of why the joke in this video. Oh and not sure why you felt the need to tell me this when my "for someone who claims to not be a engineer" is just a saying nothing more. I don't expect him to be both nor does it matter to the quality of his work.
@Turnipstalk sorry bro having a bad day at the time and reacted without really taking in your comment. Get so used to getting attacked on RUclips by people being, well people who can say what they want without consequences that it was basically automatic.
at 17:36, Is that Li Lu from the Fifth Element?
Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere
Ty 🥳
Around 1991 I was a young Elecromechanical Apprentis. I had been an Auto mechanic prior to working in the motor shop. I had a few worm gears, and several motors under my belt. My boss began freaking out, when he came in and saw 2 Cyclogears, completely dissassembled on my bench. Closest he ever came to screaming,, he yelled,, "We DON'T WORK ON CYCLOGEARS!! We Never have!" Not knowing,, I asked Why? Because you can't get them back together! Too complicated! He shouted!
These were something in the 180 to 1. Ratio, multi stack. But low powered,, like 1.5hp used to extend/retract Gym Bleachers. He paced back and forth as I changed the bad bearings, and put them both back together. He calmed down, as we successfully test ran the first one. When he came back and saw the second one running fine, he said,, "Well I guess We work on Cyclogears."😊 dude you're good 👍! Cheers!
Very cool :)
There is another type of cycloidal reduction box you can make that is easier to get backlash-free & easier to fabricate because all the critical machining is groove into planer disk surface. The engagement is axial, not radial. The "rollers" are ball bearings acting between 2 grooved disks. Because of the axial arrangement, backlash can be taken up to compensate for wear or fabrication. 2 facing disks have cycloidal track machined into them: one hypocycloidal, the other epicycloidal. Ball bearings roll between them, held under axial compression. 2 stacked assemblies are used to remove the orbital motion & the difference between the 2 ratios permits large ratios with low lobe counts. A central crank forces orbital motion (same as for drive you have).
Do you have a link or keywords to find out more about that design of cycloidal reduction box?
@Nedw Web search gets nothing (I tried "AXIAL cycloidal gearbox). The search latches on "cycloidal" & ignores "axial". I found about this in old optical catalog (for fine motion of optics without backlash). The benefit of this scheme is the ease of making if you have manual lathe & CNC milling machine. All of the "non-circular" elements are machined on a plane surface (simple cycloidal groove that ball bearings roll in). Calculating the CNC files is simple. It is the superposition of 2 circular motions: one is once around, & the other is multiple times around. One plate has path where the 2 rotations are the same direction (makes cycloid) & the other opposite rotations (makes hypocycloid). The (larger) radius of the once-around rotation & the (smaller) radius of the multiple-times around rotations are the same on the 2 mating surfaces. You need 3 plates (2 surfece-sets) total. The center plate is forced to orbit by eccentric. The ratio between plate 1 & plate 2 is different than that between 2 & 3 & in the opposite direction. For example, if ratio 1 is 15:1 & ratio 2 is 16:1 (reversed), the total ratio of 240:1. I do have CAD files of one I made experimentally. If you have place where I can send them, I offer them for you to look at.
Ironically, when I saw the thumbnail, I thought it was using ball bearings instead of rollers.
I found a patent for an "axial cycloid reducer", then hit a dead end.
I also came across magnetic cycloidal reducers, which are neat but have radial "engagement" not axial.
29:53 wait... you don't weigh in your offcuts and chips for scrap value?
If you're meaningfully applying science to a particular problem, then you're engineering. That makes you an engineer.
It's neither a nut or a bolt - it's a retainer ring 👌
24:10 That is called an internal nut.
Also, in some instances, it is called a 'gland' or 'gland nut' [mainly in hydraulic applications and maritime drive shaft applications, where some form of [usually lubricated] fluid seal and sliding, or rotating shaft is being held by the assembly.
Hm I thought an internal nut was something else entirely . . .
] 😅
Though in Sydney "internal nut" is a sort of sexual misadventure that'll land you in St Vincent's for the weekend.
So, I'm watching this man make a very complicated gearbox to remove backlash. But so far he hasn't mentioned why he NEEDS no backlash whatsoever. What application needs this design?
I can't think of one offhand for something at home, but I've run into them at work for speed compensation gearboxes in printing where any backlash results in huge changes in print or cut quality
For some axis movement on his CNC machine. Any backlash will take your milling tool out of center
He should send the finished product to Elon Musk to fit into his rocket engines to reduce vibration.
That soldering iron sounds great
We need more over confident nerds like these making billion dollar companies look like amateurs, keep it up we the community got ur back
The boring part made me chuckle
It took me 25 minutes to realize your soldering iron was not in fact a microphone
*I made a precision gearbox with no gears
**Shows the entire process of making gears for a gearbox** 😂
idk what I just watched but I stayed for the cinematography
Man that song choice comes straight from love. This is brilliant.
My goodness, that is a monumental project, for someone whose not an engineer.
You got balls