It's fractal a la the Apollonian Gasket, to wit place a large circle within a space, then repeatedly fill all available outside-a-circle spaces with the largest

It's fractal a la the Apollonian Gasket, to wit place a large circle within a space, then repeatedly fill all available outside-a-circle spaces with the largest possible circle. Interestingly in this case, the limiter is the number of gear teeth - when down to two, stop. It's a fractal if you start your first gear with an infinite number of teeth. That being problematic, when down to 2 teeth scale back up to resume filling space with the largest gear possible ... making the real trick determining whether a gear should be placed such that it does not immobilize the chain.