Build Journal
Eight months of gearboxes, failures, and the clutch that won.
The unfiltered story of building TiltForge — reconstructed from seventy dated folders of iterations, one brutally honest spreadsheet, and what survived of a YouTube history.
October 9, 2026
No Spring
The clutch on my test unit had no spring in it, which meant it would slowly lose its grip. Here's why that matters, and the six small washers that fix it.
October 5, 2026
The Nut Is the Shoulder
The clutch was binding because there was nothing on the shaft to clamp against. The fix was a nut, and the reason it took new motors and two months.
September 30, 2026
Two Axes
How the gears in this thing actually work, and why the cord never fights the motor.
September 27, 2026
The Eye Screw
Five weeks ago I published a two-piece snap knuckle for wand blinds. It's gone. A plain eye screw replaced it, and the eye screw bends more than twice as far.
September 24, 2026
It Moves
The first successful full tilt under web control — and it's commissioned in Apple Home, so Siri does it too. A Monday night in the office, ten months after I thought this would be easy.
September 23, 2026
Will It Fit
What the founders batch fits, what it does not yet, and the three things to measure before you reserve.
September 19, 2026
November
Why the founders batch moved from September to November, what the motor lead time actually is, and what is not waiting on it.
September 15, 2026
Where the Magnet Goes
An absolute encoder needs a shaft end, and the tilt rod does not give you one. The crown gear, the two magnets that fake a diametric one, and the pocket that sets the air gap for you.
August 22, 2026
The Sweet'N Low Packet
The last open mechanical problem — driving a blind's tilt wand from a horizontal axle — died at the coffee counter, with a sugar packet and two torn corners.
August 15, 2026
The Drivetrain Runs
The new motors are in, the friction clutch rides the motor spur, and the complete TiltRod drivetrain runs — on camera — for the first time.
August 13, 2026
TiltForge
The company got its name from a robot, the product kept its own, and the safety feature ate the transmission. The finale — for now.
August 8, 2026
Peak Complexity, Then the Delete Key
A 25-part machine that worked, the requirement I forgot I had, and the shelf where my favorite failures sit like trophies.
July 23, 2026
Exotic Detours
Magnetic gears with no touching parts, TPU timing belts, a friction clutch that entered as a footnote, and the cycloid campaign I couldn't quit.
July 16, 2026
It Gets a Brain
The sensing problem I couldn't yet solve, seven motor mounts over New Year's, and the January 1st folder where a guy who'd never laid out a board built one anyway — with help.
July 9, 2026
The Gear Safari
Planetary gears, a $19.27 machine-shop reality check, and the sixteen-day harmonic-drive rabbit hole. November and December in the workshop.
July 2, 2026
The Wife Test
How a public smart-home failure and a $5 Amazon part turned into an eight-month engineering education.
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