Gearhart sock knitting machine cylinder and ribber

thingiverse

This is a sock knitting machine cylinder with customizable slots, so you can print out as many different sized cylinders as you'd like to have. This one is based on a Gearhart cylinder, because that's all I have available, but I tried to make the code easy to understand and update so it can be modified to fit other machines as well. I printed out a 60 tooth cylinder, and tested it on my machine (see photos). The fit isn't quite perfect yet, but that may be due more to the material (PLA is more flexible than pot metal) than to the model. The measurements for my print are unchanged from the defaults in the model. When printing, I'd recommend using supports for both the bottom (there's an area below the slots which fits into the gear ring) and the spring slot. I didn't use supports for the one cylinder I've printed so far, and needed to do a fair amount of cleanup before the spring would fit into the slot. I've now added a ribber (not sure if Customizer is working properly yet -- I can't get it to show me a preview of only the ribber or only the cylinder, though my code matches the documentation as best I can tell. If you know what's wrong with it, let me know!), but haven't printed it to test yet because my ribber plate is broken. I'm working on a model for that now, since those are frequently victims of time and poor choice of materials (pot metal tends to expand over time, and the selvedge switch broke my ribber plate when it expanded). I'll update this when my ribber has been tested. Meanwhile, if you print one, let me know how it works! I'd recommend printing the ribber with the slots upright, since althogh slots down would give a nice smooth surface to the tops of the slots, the needles need to be able to slide on the surfaces between the slots. Printing with the slots down could leave either droopy filament in the slots or require supports, which could leave partial supports remaining in the slots. Printing slots up with supports leaves any potential remaining support material on the bottom of the ribber, which is not a part which touches anything normally. I'm not 100% sure the fin for cylinder/ribber alignment (on the bottom of the ribber) is in the right place -- I tried to line it up with a slot, but currently can't test it, so if there's a problem with it, let me know. It's also possible that this placement may vary depending on your cylinder or other variables, so I'm considering ways to make it adjustable. I also haven't extended the boss for cylinder/ribber alignment on the inside of the cylinder for the same reason (no way to test alignment). You'll need to add a rod, modify the cylinder or glue something to the inside wall of the cylinder to use a ribber with a printed cylinder. I guess I should update that short term too, since testing is going to be delayed until I have printed a good ribber plate. Look for an update to fix that in the near future.