Gear making (was Calling All Machinists)

Remember this?

The tractor is from the late 1980's, hardly an antique, but Sears no longer stocks a replacement steering sector gear and the tooth count is non-standard for 20 PA gears.

jsw

Milling a gear for an old golf-course lawnmower was my first commercial milling job. It was almost my last, too.

It's of more use for making specials as replacement parts, for sizes, thicknesses, etc. that are non-standard.

If you repair antique machinery, you may be glad you have them. You'll need a good rotary indexing table to use them.

Antique steam engines?

-- Ed Huntress

No but you have an old lathe that you could break a gear on. You bring home stuff that would increase in value if a missing or broken gear was replaced.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

s worn out. Checked with Harbor Freight and they no longer stock gears for= one of their bandsaws. And have no gears in stock for the other model of = horizontal bandsaw. But would order one from China if I was willing to wei= ght.

Incidently for those with worm gear driven band saws, Boston Gear recommends synthetic gear oil for their worm gear reduction boxes. It used to be Mobil 634. But things change.

=20 Dan

Lubrication

Worm Gear Speed Reducers

Helical

Bevel

Motor Multiplier FSP5 Series

Reducer Express

Guaranteed Same Day Shipment

Parts Lists

FAQ's

Since December 5th, 2005, Boston Gear=92s new standard lubricant has been Kl=FCbersynth UH1 6-460 across all enclosed gearing product families.

Kl=FCbersynth UH1 6-460 is a fully formulated high temperature/high performance and H1 certified gear oil that can be used in food processing and pharmaceutical manufacturing environments. The combination of this lubricant and Boston Gear=92s superior gear design yield improvements in efficiencies and performance and a reduction in wear and operating temperatures. Kl=FCbersynth UH1 6-460 performance leads to prolonged life of the seals and bearings along with lower annualized operating costs to the end user.

Click here for a copy of the MSDS for Kl=FCbersynth UH1 6-460. Click here for a list of FAQs about the new lubricant and how to place an order for a pre-lubricated unit. Click here for a copy of the 700 Series Single Reduction Ratio & Capacity Selection Tables.

Click here for a copy of the 700 Series Single Reduction Catalog Number Explanation. Click here for a copy of the MSDS for Mobil SHC 634. Click here for a copy of the MSDS for Mobil 600.

I know how you feel. I tried to get work to buy me an involute cutter once along with the stock to fix a lathe. We have dividing heads and machines to use to spare. The gear was a metric one made out of an engineering plastic as a fusable part on a fairly decent sized engine lathe's screw cutting feed system.

That would have been so ez. It was on an adjustable shaft to deal with meshing with an imperial or metric ratio change gear. I could have been a bit sloppy and it would have worked.

Instead they paid too much for a custom gear.

Wes

Years ago I made a gear for a fellow from the old Compuserve metal working group, Roger Peterson. He had a nice Rockwell metal lathe, with a tooth or two busted off the back gear. I felt that cutting a real working gear, was a step toward calling myself a real machinist. Offered to make the gear for free if he bought the cutter and materials. Made two just in case he ever needed another, but far as I know that lathe is still running the first gear.

I'd love to find a box or two of involute cutters, just to have around, just in case....

Jon

1) Mr Leno is obviously not very good at either research or machining (There are almost certainly plenty of people that could do it for the right price, and he could have done it himself if he tried. 3D printers weren't needed when his cars were made. 2) Only done spur gears so far, but have made and hardened a complete new set of gears for a Hardinge HLV apron gear box and will need to make a full set of change wheels for metric threads. Possibly I'll cast an additional gearbox to make a unique HLV-EM:-)

Mark Rand RTFM

jsw

Yep -- replacement gears for lathes and other tools. Or missing gear, or gears to make it do something which it never had to do before.

In addition to the involute cutters, you need a milling machine (which you have, IIRC, though a horizontal mill might be better), a dividing/indexing head (you can make do with a rotary table, but more of the angular positioning is automated with the dividing/indexing head and its wheels and arms), and the lathe to make the gear blank. This is for standard straight (spur) gears. Bevel, helical and hypoid gears take a bit more specialized machinery. But most machine tools use straight gears.

And for production, you want a gear hobber and the proper hob for the gears which you want to make. A single hob covers all tooth counts in a given pitch and pressure angle, but it needs a much more complex and specialize machine to drive the blank and the hob.

Another thing which is nice to have, especially if you are duplicating a damaged gear, is a gear tooth vernier caliper, but you can usually do without that if you know what the pitch and pressure angle are.

You have old machines. You may need to make gears for them eventually.

How many antique machine tools do you have? :-)

FWIW, I bought the full set of involute gear cutters for the gear pitch used in my Clausing. They are expensive, and a full set is eight cutters. (Actually -- there is a secondary set -- half steps -- to do a better job for gears between the center of the range of the standard cutters.

I would suggest that you go through your collection and sort it. First by pitch and Pressure Angle (PA), then make sure that you have at least one each of numbers 1 through 8. If you have the half step ones, keep them with the others.

If you have duplicates, see if you can tell whether one is more dull than the other.

*I* would keep the whole set -- among other things for the possibility of making gears needed for model steam engines or something similar.

Enjoy, DoN.

On the contrary, he is very GOOD at research - and anyone who knows Jay knows they will be paid a fair price to make whatever he needs/wants. He's no cheapskate.

No standard commercial gear cutter in America could or would make the part. Very few machinists in America today have the equipment AND experience to make that gear. Some have one, some the other - but very few both.

His research paid off when he found the one old guy who had both.

I have a mill and a right angle attachment for it. Also got the R8 arbor in the pile with the involute cutters. Plus a large quantity of slitting cutters and other horizontal mill style things. Some are used to make round grooves.

The lot includes four boxes shown.

Price was $55.

Dno, practically speaking, is it possible to make gears with a rotary table and a calculator or spreadsheet (to show angles)? Or would it not produce accurate enough geometry?

I want to make a gear, just to practice. I have a rotary table, but not a indexing head.

Yes, I have seen those.

58 year old compressor, 42 year old lathe, 35 year old mill. Note that I ewmphatically do not consider 35 year old anything to be antique.

OK... I will sort through them...

i

My guess, not knowing too much, is that standard cutters do not cut the gears that Leno had.

i

Th egear cutters are in the rear right box.

Slitting and cutting saws are in the rear left and front left boxes, R8 arbor and other arbors are in the front left box. Special profile slitting cutters (round profile, vee way etc) and some more gear cutters are in the front right box.

i

yes... Thanks a lot... The air has cleared and it is apparent that getting rid of this stuff would be a major mistake.

Does anyone know of some company selling this stuff that has a good PDF catalog that explains their selection. McMaster is a page with involute cutters, but it is not very detaled.

i

Involute gear cutters make cutting gears easy. I have a gear now that I have to make to repair a machine that parts are no longer available.

If you want to sell the gears I sure could use them.

John

I don't know the situation, but there are many gear configurations that can't be cut with milling cutters. If the tooth form is undercut, for example, you can't do it. It has to be hobbed or gear-shaped (with a gear shaper, not a regular shaper). And something really odd could require a custom hob -- not something one is likely to do for a one-off of anything.

-- Ed Huntress

You need the whole skippie.

see

for free see

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

That chapter is a keeper. Thanks a lot. I will read that and the Law book.

Now that I think about it, being able to make gears, would also enable me to make fun toys for kids.

i

Machinerys Handbook Cheers,

Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)