I am building a Rube Goldberg device and i need to find a way to make a lever go from pointing up to the right, to pointing down to the right. Can i do it by cranking a wheel and axle? If not, are there any other ways to do it?
A cam shaft can do this. A cam is essentially a lobe sticking out from the rotation axis of some axle as you describe it. Go look at the shape of an automotive cam to get the idea. Essentially, if your moving lever surface leaned against the cam, you can change it's angle significantly, if you design the cam and the length, hinge and position of the lever correctly. Another way, more similar to ziggle's idea, would be to bring a connecting rod off the face of the wheel; pinned to the wheel; and then the other end pinned to the lever. As the wheel turns,. the con-rod will drive the lever up and down if you design it properly.
I don't know if I have the correct picture, but levers are frequently moved up and down by wheels. A lever with a slot in it is pushed onto a peg on the wheel. As the wheel turns the level goes up and down with the peg moving in the lever's slot.
if you mounted the axle at a right angle to the lever and put another wheel on it with a dowel mounted to the rim(making a cam of sorts) that extends under the lever you could turn the handle wheel causing the cam to rotate under the lever ,raising or lowering the lever at need.By changing the position of the axle in relation to the pivot of the lever and changing the cam size you can get any amount of movement you need.Also by increasing the number of dowels on the rim you would increase the amount of time(or degrees of rotation) that the lever is elevated,if you wanted the lever to go up and down with every rotation of the hand wheel or you could put stops on the handwheel to lock it in the position you want(lever up or down) Well good luck ,it sounds fun
