Cogs and Gearbox

Cogs change speed (and with it, force). The gearbox changes direction, by turning power round a corner.

Small Cog

  P
P S P
  P

P is any Planks and S is a Shaft.

Large Cog

  P
P C P
  P

P is any Planks and C is a Small Cog.

How cogs work

A cog sits on a shaft line and turns with it. Place two cogs side by side, flat in the same plane, and their teeth mesh. Meshed cogs turn in opposite directions:

Driving	Driven	Result
Small	Small	Same speed, reversed
Large	Small	Twice as fast, half the force
Small	Large	Half as fast, twice the force

Two cogs stacked end to end on the same shaft don't mesh. They just turn together.

When placed, a cog takes the axis of whatever you placed it against. Sneak while placing to point it along the face you clicked instead.

Why gear down?

Slower and stronger is how you get a hammer to hit hard enough for hard metals without switching to a short throw. Every metal has a hardness, and a blow below it does nothing. See Metalworking.

Gearing up makes things faster, but the fast branch costs more power to friction. Gear up far enough and you can trip an Overspeed Trip.

Gearbox

  C
C S C
  C

C is a Small Cog and S is a Shaft.

A gearbox connects shafts on any of its six faces at the same speed, so you can take power round corners and split it. It loses a bit more to friction than a plain shaft.

It has no settings. Which way each output turns depends on which faces you use: shafts on opposite faces turn opposite ways. If something's spinning the wrong way, add a pair of cogs to flip it.