Although it isn't really a piece of terrain, the 'thing' in the image to the right illustrates the rather nice little cogs that jedion357 has found an easy way to make using a twist type wire connector / cable joiner.
The connectors were just lying around on my desk and inspiration hit.
To make them, lay a connector on its side and, beginning at the top or closed end, place the knife so as to slice the end off. Then 'roll' the connector with the knife so that you make a shallow cut all the way around. Check that your cut will be roughly uniform in thickness then proceed with more rolling while putting more pressure on the knife.
Warning: the cut piece tends to shoot off so take precautions with safety glasses. I also used a small box to catch the gears after the first was lost.
The first two or three will be solid i.e. without a hole in the center. After that the next gear will be cut from around the metal spring that is inside. Use care in cutting this gear (to avoid blunting the knife), and then pull out the spring with needle nose pliers. The gears from this point on will have a center hole. I cut six to seven gears from each small cap and then started over with a new connector as it becomes harder to cut as it gets shorter.
Soon you will have a nice collection of gears of various sizes. Save any broken ones i.e. ones that didn't cut uniformly, for junk piles and broken machinery.
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