I wanted to decorate my graduation cap in a way that best exemplifies my experiences and show off in the most over the top way imaginable. My graduation cap consists of a functional gear train and a tassel turning mechanism as well as various embellishments such as the UW Crest, the year 2019 and my personal logo.

The red gears are arranged roughly in the shape of a “W”. The two larger gears represent my degrees. The driving gear represents my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with 5 spokes representing the 5 years it took. The other large gear represents my Certificate in Studio Art with 3 spokes since I fulfilled all the requirements in my third year (though I technically didn’t receive the degree until I graduated but that’s not as interesting).

After uploading gifs of the aptly named “Gear-aduation Cap” to imgur and posting it to Reddit, the post quickly rose in popularity and ended up reaching the front page!

See it in action here:

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Most of the pieces including the gears, the mortarboard and the crest are laser cut out of either MDF, plywood or acrylic. The gears are mounted using nuts and bolts except for the driving gear which is friction fit on the the shaft of the motor. The 3V DC motor is attached using a 3D printed mount and wired to a battery pack which was kept in my pocket and acts as the on/off switch. There is a disconnect that allows me to separate the cap from the battery pack as well as switch the direction of the motor.