How can I prevent gimbal locking on this?

I have had a difficult time understanding the concepts that have been presented while searching for the answer to this, such as using quaternions. I have no idea how to apply them. Any help would be highly appreciated.

This is ripped in its entirety from the Roblox wiki article "Springs", just edited to be used with rotation.

local rs = game:GetService("RunService")
local cc = workspace.CurrentCamera

local spring = {}

function spring.new(current, velocity, target)
	local self = setmetatable({}, {__index = spring})
	
	self.current = current
	self.velocity = velocity
	self.target = target
	self.k = 1
	self.d = 1
	
	return self
end

function spring:update()
	local x = self.target - self.current
	local f = x * self.k
	self.velocity = (self.velocity * (1 - self.d)) + f
	self.current = self.current + self.velocity
end

local part0 = Instance.new("Part", workspace)
part0.Anchored = true
part0.CanCollide = false

local part1 = Instance.new("Part", workspace)
part1.Anchored = true
part1.CanCollide = false

local new = spring.new(part0.Orientation, Vector3.new(), part1.Orientation)
new.k = 0.5
new.d = 0.5

rs.RenderStepped:connect(function()
	new.target = part0.Orientation
	new:update()
	part0.CFrame = cc.CFrame
	part1.CFrame = part0.CFrame * CFrame.new(-2, -2, -5)
	part1.Orientation = new.current
end)

Ok, I don't have the time to finish the script. Basically what I was going to do was make it measure the distance between the rotations. If its over 180deg, it reverses the angle.

(the problem being that roblox doesn't naturally loop from 180 over to -180, you have to do that math yourself. So if the last angle is 180, and the next angle is supposed to be -170 it will go backwards. You want to tell it to keep going those remaining degree instead of backtracking.

Radians since they work in relation to a circle itself would be my preferred rout if I had time to do the math. Especially since they auto fill if you add or subtract with them.

You could also use axis rotations I think, it would require more math though i think..