Impressive work for someone of any age!

- any project that involves hardware or physical objects (especially ones you are manufacturing!) is impressive

- the craftsmanship

- references to established standards

- documentation

- actually publishing

As others have said here you can drop the “wannabe” tag (or don’t, we’re all wannabes at heart :))

Nice job and keep up the good work!

Excellent example of a creative effort that even includes the physical satisfaction of building a physical object! Sometimes that makes it way more fun (motivating), and actually probably helps you learn and understand whatever you're doing more completely by involving another sense.

I think in general, there are too few people putting in the deep time that prepares them to be an engineer in their near future. You're practically there already: it will feel the same after perhaps you decide to call yourself a degreed "engineer" but you will have more mental tools, broader knowledge, confidence from having been able to make what you envision, understanding across disciplines. You have a lot to look forward to! As I told my kids: don't let imposter syndrome take hold of you for a moment! You are a rarity in any group.

Note to the OP: Mechanical engineering textbooks that are two editions out of date are dirt cheap. If you can't afford them, email me and I'll send some.

What is it? Is this like a gear, where the output shaft turns at some fraction of the input shaft? Is better or worse than traditional toothed gears in some way?

You’ll certainly enjoy the “Not an Engineer” channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFJJkZm796I

Anytime you can turn a deep personal interest, like designing and building this impressive gearbox, into something that lands you a paid gig somewhere, you have basically hacked the typical employment system and you should be happy and proud that you saved all the time and expense of a 4 year degree to get what you wanted in the first place.

Now, it remains to be seen if this project will land you a professional level paid job doing what you seem to love to do, so I think the whole "engineer" question is still up in the air.

Yes, anyone can call themselves an engineer but I believe, in the West at least, that until you graduate from an accredited University or have 3-4 solid professional industry experience, calling yourself an engineer might be considered premature.

I think you can drop the wannabe label. Of course you have a long way to go and much to learn but I think you are already an engineer, just one at the very start of what might be a great career.

you're not a wannabe! you're an engineer! you made something awesome. wishing you the best :).

Nice.

I'm an over-40 year old wannabe engineer too, except I didn't get as far as you on my little pet project: designing a 'universal' gear, based on professor Jack Phillips' work "General Spatial Involute Gearing." So far I can model the basic helicoids in Siemens NX, such that they touch along the ISA (Intermediate Screw Axis) which passes through the CDL (Center Distance Line) in between the gear axes. I have no clue how to proceed from there with actual involute teeth.

My idea is to at some point write an NX Open script/module, which takes in various parameters (like selecting the shaft/axes vectors; inputs ratio, pitch, etc.) and spits out something structured like my model.

try making something without AI too, it will be valuable

V2 to V3 iteration was actually impressive regardless of age

Cool man, really nice project! Awesome that you built and documented the whole thing. Following to see what you build next.

Hey, you should join Hack Club! I was just at an event where a high schooler designed and built a continuous variable transmission (https://outpost.hackclub.com).

You’ll meet a ton of interesting, friendly teens who are all helping each other build awesome projects.

Cool project!

(Hack Club is a nonprofit and I’m the founder of it)

Looks cool, but if you want people to judge your project on its merit, then don't post information about your age; it will make honest feedback difficult both for you and the sender.

PS: anyone who can keep their focus on a project for more than a few weeks and complete it can become a fine engineer so don't worry about that.

Cool!

I didn't even know what a cycloidal gearbox was! Good work—you've kicked off an exciting career.

You are on track ! at the age of 15 you building fantastic, just one word, "Keep Moving Sky is not the limit anymore"

Congrats! You are not a wannabe engineer, you are an engineer.

If you have the motivation to chase your passion to build these machines, you are already an engineer. Keep going!

Nice! Can it output SVG files for cutting w/ a CNC?

Seriously impressive, you should be proud of yourself! As another (software) engineer your age, being able to be creative is always a thing to be happy about.

I built this because I wanted a better way to use multiple AI models during development...

you're an engineer by doing, whereas wannabes don't! very cool project

Don’t listen to people telling you not to post your age on the internet. This is solid work and you did this instead of being stuck in one of the hundreds of +1 dopamine traps in Roblox or yelling at other (often times much younger) kids in Fortnite like many of your peers did.

You did something meaningful, you even waited to share it with the world until version three, and you learned a ton doing it. Well done, dude!

You are a very talented 15 year old engineer. Not a wannabe. Just getting a head start on the imposter syndrome!

Welcome to the club

it is pretty cool, but posting your age + an (likely) AI project on hacker news is probably a bad idea.

Nice work!

Great project! Keep pushing, do not pay attention to anyone saying that AI will replace all software engineers.

What is it?

Nice work! Great to see you’re having fun with the projects. As we get older we focus on being productive. Never lose the creativity!

wannabe? there isn't a guild, or a test, its a choice.

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Don't post your age on the internet :)

Project looks cool

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cycloidal designs are a great thing to have actually built rather than just read about. the eccentric motion is easy to follow on paper and then surprisingly fiddly once real tolerances show up.

two things worth measuring if you have not: backlash, and how much it changes after a few hundred cycles. cycloidal drives are usually sold on low backlash, so knowing your real number turns this from a nice print into something you can quote a spec for. if you have a way to load the output shaft, efficiency under load is the other number people will ask about.

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There is a lack of project justification documents, need a CAPEX proposal and what is the expected ROI? /s

In a serious note, looks good and don't let the paperwork keep you down!

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