I need to come up with a right angle gearbox (example)
I’m not a blacksmith and local hardware stores are coming up empty apart from selling a right angle drill attachment (which would work but they’re a bit pricey for my purpose).
The purpose: to hide a water valve (positioned upright) & control it from the other side of a wall. (back story)
My ideas so far:
- find a broken angle grinder that someone threw away (seems unlikely) & cannabalize the gears
- build right angle gears out of wood
- harvest worn down bicycle cassettes from the trash and orient them at right angles against each other. They are designed to mate with a chain, so I’m not sure how well it would work. The valve is only turned on/off a couple times per year, so maybe I can get away with it.
- go to a toy store and find a kid’s Capsela set (do they still make these?); though I imagine it might exceed the cost of a right angle drill accessory anyway and it would possibly break under stress.
What other tools or appliances should I look for on a dumpster dive which would likely contain a right angle gearbox?
@DownwardSpiral Thanks for the suggestion. I’m not sure if a rubber hose (like a garden hose) could take the pressure without kinking. A flex shaft did occur to me, which is in some Dremel kits and also sold for drills. I think a flex shaft accessory would work but then I’m probably approaching the cost of a right angle attachment anyway. I’ll keep it in mind though. It would indeed be cheap to use a small section of garden hose if it can handle the torque. Perhaps a hose inside of a hose to add strength and resist the hose getting twisted.
(edit) I have an old plumber’s snake that’s in rough shape. Perhaps i could cut a bit of that off and run it through a garden hose, and use the snake as a flex shaft. Though it might not do too well in the counter-clockwise direction of rotation.