cutting small involute spur gears

Get yourself a copy of "Gears and Gear Cutting" by Ivan Law. (Amazon is one source.) Among other things, it will show you how to fabricate your own gear cutters for any DP and number of teeth.

I'll second Marvin's comment. The above mentioned book is very good and has all the info you need to make the desired gears. Not only that, it has theory in it explained in such a way that your average hobbiest can understand it. ERS

I agree. I have this book and it's great.
You can also make single tooth cutters like fly cutters for cheap prototyping until you know what you want.
The CNC Taig w/4th axis will do this nicely. I hope your rotary table is cnc!
Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA
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First, Marvin and Eric have it right. Get Ivan Law's book as your first step. After digesting the theory and the actual cutting operations, you will have to decide whether to invest in commercially available cutters, or make your own. The commercial cutters are expensive, but nice to use and may be worth the cost if you are going to make a lot of gears. If you are only going to cut a few gears, and enjoy the challenge of a real "do it yourself" approach, study Law's Chapter 12, which tells you how to make a single point form tool to use in a fly-cutter for cutting specific gears. (See his Figures 95 and 96.)
Law's method involves two heat treating operations -- one for making the "button" tool, and another for the actual form tool. I have used an alternate method, which produces the form tool directly by grinding the form tool from HSS stock in full hard condition.
If there is interest, I will write this up and post it in the drop box.

The one coming to my mind for small gears is Hugh Sparks (haven't read him here for a long time).
Check his site for other interesting stuff.
Nick

Before making your own, check what may be availible in the hobby world.
NorthWest Short Line makes mod 3 gears.
Howard Garner

thanks for your (and everyone else's!) feedback - it's been very helpful. i've ordered ivan law's book and anticipate it will arrive in a week or so.
if you have time to write up your alternate method, i would greatly appreciate it. i'm sure it will help...
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