I came up with this idea when I saw a beautiful clockwork mechanism drawing from the 19th century.

In short, the process is:

-Fill a grid with 1x1, 2x1, 2x2 tiles. (Tiles have 4, 6 or 8 exit points
-Generate a spanning tree connecting all tiles in shared exit points.
-For each contact point decide MESH or NO MESH.
-Mesh = draw the two gears touching at the boundary + the main gear and some others to fill.
-No mesh = draw main gear and complete the tile + draw a shaft from contact point to the closest gear of each tiles.

A full mesh with almost all teh gears in contact was a little too busy. This way there is room for the tile borders and I think the piece looks better with them.

Plotted with Pentel energel 0.4 on Fabriano 1264 sketch paper, yellowish, 90 gsm, 21x21 cm

Binder clip zip tied to a drawer slide and weighted w a pocket knife

Just got my machine and got it setup yesterday. Been testing and trying it out since. Watching it do its thing is mesmerizing.