How can I build a functional gyroscope?

[Mange]

I need to build a working gyroscope. Where can I find information on how to build one? also what materials to use to build it? Any Ideas?

 

[berkeman]

I need to build a working gyroscope. Where can I find information on how to build one? also what materials to use to build it? Any Ideas?

Are you going to gimbal it in all 3 axes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope

.

 

[Mange]

yeah, all three. But if I can't seem to do that, then just two.

 

[Cleonis]

I need to build a working gyroscope. Where can I find information on how to build one? also what materials to use to build it? Any Ideas?

In an MIT physics lecture by professor Walter Lewin with lots of demonstrations you see a gyroscope that has clearly been manufactured by the faculty's workshop. It looks crude, but it's pretty well balanced. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-01-physics-i-classical-mechanics-fall-1999/video-lectures/embed24/" Shift the indicator of the progress bar to 44 minutes into the lecture.

Look at the yellow housing. The bearings for the gimbal axes are set in blocks, and by the looks of it those blocks can be shifted if necessary. That way the gimbal axes can be postioned in such a way that the gyroscope wheel is balanced. It seems to me that is the key: build it in such a way that you can tweak the position of the gimbal axes relative to the housing.