2022 News and Announcments!

Its the start of a new year and there are several pieces of news that you might be interested in:

1. Upcoming Price Changes
2. New Gear Sets
3. Customer reviews and testimonials
4. Expanded shipping options

1. Upcoming Price Changes

• Wood boxes and sheets will be increasing in price immediately.  The Box/Crate option will increase from $25 to $40 .  When I debuted these boxes I underestimated the production time and effort; on top of that wood prices have increased significantly.  The wood sheet option will increase from $5 to $7.50
• Gear Sets have not had their pricing revised in several years.  My plan is to re-asses prices for July 1 2022 and make an announcement about any changes then.  You have 6 months of the current prices.  I don't think that all prices will be going up but it is likely that some things will be adjusted.  I continue to do my best to keep prices attainable while providing the highest quality product possible.
• Shipping is an area where I am always looking for ways to decrease the price and provide better options.  I do not foresee any shipping rate increases in 2022

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2. New Gear Sets

There are two new gear sets.  The Square Hoops gear set and the Paisley gear set.  The major theme of each gear set is complete but I plan to give two weeks (Jan 21) after this announcement (Jan 7) for discussion of design details and finalization of the designs before beginning production and shipping.

the Square Hoops gear set working design

Paisley gear set working design

The Square Hoops gear set

The Square Hoops gear set is a collection of non-circular gears nested in each other.   Points for final design development include adding pen hole fans where there is space on the 4 inner non-circular gears.  Detailing on the  four 60 tooth gears.  Open for ideas on what would be interesting things to do with these 60 gears.  There is also space for other small details to be added to this gear set.  What small details would interest you?

Often when designing a gear set I'll complete the main theme (big nested non-circular gears) and still have some space and cutting budget left on the design.  There is where I'll try and add a complementary minor theme to the gear set.  This time I'm hoping to solicit thoughts, suggestions, and requests to tap some options that might not have immediately occurred to me.  My first thought for a minor theme is that there is some room in the corners of the frames for smallish gears to be cutout.  I think that prime numbers are under represented in Wild Gears; they are not often present because they only make very dense designs.  I think that very dense designs in non-circular rings look spectacular; they get all bendy and 3D looking in the corners.  So this might be a good place for some small prime gears as a minor theme for the gear set.

The Paisley gear set

There is a piece in the Strange Shapes 2 gear set that was the inspiration for the Paisley gear set.  It was used to great effect by u/inksphere on reddit to make some stunning designs.  Examples #1,  #2,  #3,  #4,  #5,  #6,  #7.

I'm sure that there are many unexplored ways to put this asymmetrical type of shape to great use.

Where to find and discuss these gear sets

The pre-order pages are posted here:

• Paisley gear set
• Square Hoops gear set

To discuss these gear sets you have several options.  You can:

• Comment on this blog post
• email me directly at [email protected]
• join the conversation over at r/spirograph where I have created a post about the new gear sets

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​4. Customer reviews and testimonials

There is now a Reviews and Testimonials page for Wild Gears.  If you would like to share your opinion/experience/feelings about Wild Gears please use the form on that page and it will be posted.

At some point this might update to a fancier review widget but for now it is low-tech and simple.

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4. Expanded shipping options

Last fall I quietly added some lower cost shipping options for many destinations.  The main one is "Small Packet International Air" or "International Air" depending of package weight.  This is a less expensive option compared to a standard tracked packet shipment.  There are two key differences though:

1. This option does not have a tracking number.  This means that you can't track the package on its way to be delivered.  This also means that if its arrival is delayed that there is a longer waiting period before any lost package investigations will be done by postal carriers.
2. This option also doesn't have a specific estimated delivery date.  It has an estimated delivery window; 6-12 days , for example.  The estimated delivery window is usually comparable to that of the tracked package so it is not an inherently slower delivery method; just more uncertain.

It is also possible to ship things to some destinations by boat for reduced shipping fees but the delivery window for that option is usually listed as 4-12 weeks and the above discussion about no tracking number applies here.

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Thank-you so much for taking the time and interest to read this news.  I hope to be more active this year, making new videos, and sharing techniques.  If you have any questions you can always reach out to me directly by email at [email protected]
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Happy New Year,
​Aaron Bleackley