[HELP] Meshing Gears with the New Z60 Turntable

[Alasdair Ryan]

I thought you would know the difference by now, with all those technic titles on your posts we expect you to be on the ball ;-)

Well yes I do know the difference,it just that I am hard wired to say 14 instead of 12.

what's two teeth between friends

Like I said he is bored.

[Jim]

Interesting topic!

I will add it to the Index.

[deehtha]

Everyone, who owns the new turntable: if you drive it, like in these pictures, runs smooth and without much noise? If so, maybe my turntable is wrong, but it seems fine, no deformation can be seen anywhere. One more thing can I imagine: it's only noisy and bad running for me. (maybe my expectations were too much about smooth running)

I tested with 3 of my new large turntables and a few of my small turn tables. I did not get any vibration from the gear meshing at 90 degrees. I did notice the teeth on all of the turn tables would come into contact with the support beams. This caused vibration and noise. Looking closely at the turntables when they are compressed, the teeth do come passed the grey section.

[TheMindGarage]

Away from my LEGO, but here are all the planar meshing combinations possible:

Mesh with 12-tooth gear at a distance of (4, 2) - that's 4 studs in one direction and 2 in a perpendicular direction.

Mesh with 20-tooth gear at a distance of (5, 0) or (4, 3).

Mesh with 36-tooth gear at a distance of (6, 0). (6, 1) may work, but probably won't hold much torque.

Mesh with 40-tooth gear at a distance of (6, 2) - probably won't hold much torque.

Mesh with 56-tooth turntable at a distance of (6, 4) or (7, 2).

I don't think any others work (apart from perpendicular meshing, which my formula doesn't cover).

[suffocation]

On 11/08/2016 at 3:50 PM, Tamas Juhasz said:

It's a bit off topic, but not far at all. So, I needed to drive the turntable, like in 42042, with 90 degree 12T bevel gear. The result is a bad drivetrain, it's noisy, and someteimes can "get stuck", but if you increase the torque at the driving axle, it will run again. The running is very lumpy, you really feel the polygon effect. I saw the teeth profile of the 60 teeth turntable, and it's a bit other than the 12t bevel gear's: http://img.bricklink.com/ItemImage/EXTN/2989.png

My question:
Is there any way to make much smoother, better running the new turntable with 90° 12T bevel gear drive? It seems to me, this turntable is nearly unusable at 90° drive, if not.

(of course, I placed everything very carefully, the frame is very rigid and correctly placed, and I used brand new gears and turntable)

Very sorry to revive this old topic but I've run into the same exact problem experienced by Tamas. I've tried four spanking new turntables and no end of 12T bevel gears and the outcome is always the same - rattling, jerky and occasionally locked-up transmission. Is there any way to fix this?

[doug72]

7 hours ago, suffocation said:

Very sorry to revive this old topic but I've run into the same exact problem experienced by Tamas. I've tried four spanking new turntables and no end of 12T bevel gears and the outcome is always the same - rattling, jerky and occasionally locked-up transmission. Is there any way to fix this?

I have not been able to replicate this fault and my Z60 turntables rotate freely on all my builds.

Are you sure that the black part of the turntable with gear teeth is not catching elsewhere.

The underside of the black teeth can rub on other parts as they stick slightly proud of the grey turntable part.

Sometimes connector pins can stick slightly proud out of the hole and catch other rotating / sliding parts.

[suffocation]

I did all the tests using an assembly like Tamas' (http://bricksafe.com/files/Tamas_Juhasz/misc/Turntable002.png/800x433.jpg), so no room for unduly protruding parts. In the end I found a turntable that ran smoothly (good thing I have half a dozen or so). I can only assume that a batch of ever-so-slightly dodgy Z60 turntables managed to worm its way out of the factory.

Interestingly, if I use the whimsical Z60s to drive the bevel gear everything works fine.

Edited September 24, 2016 by suffocation

[thomas92]

Same problem here.

It could be that some Z60 turntables are faulty, but I doubt it since that should be fixed in the newer batches then. And many of them seem to have this problem. 

What I did notice is that it matters a lot how close the 12T bevel gear is pressed against the turntable. If the gear can move away from the turntable ever so slightly, it has trouble engaging with the next tooth.

The margin is very small.. might need to put a small plastic ring or something between the gear and the part that holds it. I noticed that they use the H-shape lift arm (14720) in the 42042 set for example:

https://www.lego.com/cdn/product-assets/product.bi.core.pdf/6151636.pdf (starting at step 32, page 87)

Edit: Ok I just received a new Z60 gear and it _does_ mess well.. 🥴

Edited September 5, 2025 by thomas92