I've read about cutting worm gears with a high spiral tap in the lathe. I needed one so I though it was time to try it. I just used a 1 inch diameter disc for the blank and a 3/8-16 tap. The disc was mounted to a 1/2 in square steel tool shank and rotated on a 5/16" dia. axle. I just centered the disc by eye and fed it into the tap. It worked perfectly. Since I didn't need an exact reduction the tooth count didn't matter. It worked so well I tried using a 1/2-10 acme tap with straight flutes. No dice. But the 3/8-16 high spiral tap cut great gear teeth. Next I'll try a 1/4-20 tap. An acme tooth form would be much better so I may try threading a hob out of drill rod. ERS
- posted
17 years ago