The thread about gear cutters finally prodded me into action to have a go at the pair of gears that connect the horizontal and vertical feed on my royal shaper. The lack of any interlocks has allowed a previous owner/operator to engage both the vertical and horizontal feed in such a direction that teeth have been stripped off the gears, at least twice!
Since the gears are 30 tooth 16DP gears and since our friends at RDG have some
16DP cutters, albeit 14 1/2 PA, I sent them some money. I had originally been intending to do the job with a indexing head, a drum and wire and a single point tool on the shaper, but I thought I would be more likely to actually do the job with an involute cutter.The significant part of the problem is this... I can build up the broken bits on the gears either with nickel rod or with mild steel. I have both and either would give adequate strength. The gears are also small enough that I can fully stress relieve and anneal the parts before doing any machining. Cast iron gears are good and mild steel ones are passable but I am less sure about nickel gears.
Any suggestions as to which way I should go?
Mark Rand RTFM