Cutting a Gear

[engineman56]

Moe, I'm not that broke. If I was I would be one of O's boys. I will never be that way. I'm just takin' care of the family. Everything I have goes to the family. I do pretty good on my own I think. All this shop stuff and all the other things is just a bonus. I just want to be able to make things for me.


Anyhow, I just want to be able to make things. If I have the shop then I think I can be able to survive this economy and maybe this world. I have been needing to get this lathe going just for me. Its just something I have been needing done.

I have been told: "Your not qualified to use our machines." So I just bought my own. Thats how all this got started. How much qualified do you have to be to run your own machines? Thats what pisses me off is assholes in charge. I had to do a lot of reading books to do what I needed done but I did it.

I have learned just move forward on my own. Don't depend on no one. You can't depend on no one but yourself if you want something done. This is why I have no partners in business. I have learned to trust no one. They are only looking out for themselves.

This is just me. I will never forget who has helped me.
Kevin

[MarkBall2]

What he said...............

What Kevin says is the way many of us were taught at a young age. Do for yourself, rely on yourself & family, do not wait to make it happen, just do it.

[engineman56]

Ok here in the last week I have got closer to being able to begin this gear cutting. I have managed to bum a #2 gear cutter. This is cool. I needed to do some figuring out from the diameter gears.

I used the Involute Gear Tooth Gage to figure out the gear pitch. I found out its a #10 Diameteral Pitch. All the numbers plugged in and they came out to the dimentions Brian and I figured out.

I used the TGC spur gear calculator I got on line. That seems to be the easiest and fastest thing I have found. I do believe there is going to be a gear cut just to find out where I need to be. I also will need the practice. LOL Norms idea of cutting out a wooden gear is going to happen. Then I can see just how all this is going to work. I have time to do this too. I think it will be cool.

I also needed to see the rake on the gear cutter and what the shape of the tooth cutter looked like. This may help me in the future on how to grind the tool. I have several HSS blanks and broken punches from the scrap pile. Those may work I will try to do this. I saw them in the scrap. They were broken tooling from the punch presses. Those punches are made from some real good steel. I don't see why I can't grind some tools out of them for this cutting. Or any cutters for that matter. I will see how this works out.

Tomorrow I am going to cut out the blanks for the gears. I found a good scrap piece of 3/4" thick steel just for this. These 3/4" thick gears will be mounted on the quadrant. Thats what gears I am going to make first. Thats what I have the best dimentions of. There are a few of the gears I don't know the number of teeth. I think there is 4 of them on the parts list not given the number of teeth. Also I think the quick change gears are a smaller diameter with smaller diameteral tooth pitch. I have to figure that out too.

I still need to make the fixture to hold the gears while cutting them out. I don't think its going to be that hard. I have some scrap steel for that too. I would like to use a 1" bar for the shaft. I still need to figure out some bore sizes too.

I'm moving slow but its going to come together.

Kevin

[rmack898]

Looks like you're on a roll Kevin, keep going. You'll have it done before you know it.

Sent from my iPhone using SFT

[GWIZ]

Here is one link you may like.

http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/gear/gear1.html

[cutter]

Originally Posted by engineman56

I'm moving slow but its going to come together.

Kevin

It'll work. I can see it.

[engineman56]

Ok, Here in the last week I have figured out a few things. 1) I am still making progress with this. 2) I'm going too slow for my thinking. LOL But I do have the outside diameters of the gears determined. Thats a big step.

Thats only half of it. I only have the gears figured out for the quadrant. I still need to figure out the diameters of the gears for the quick change. This is going to be more of a challenge.

I suspect the gears for the quick change gearbox is a completely different pitch simply because of the pics in the book. Just looking at the size of the quadrant beside the quick change gearbox and the drawings. The drawings of the quadrant are much larger than the drawings of the gearbox. I don't think the gears in the gearbox are a 10 pitch. That really don't matter as long as they shift and are the same number of teeth.

I told ya whats going to happen if I can't find parts. Its going to have a lot of Kevin made right on it. This is more than I was originally going to do but it actually ain't that complicated.

More math than anything. After I get the gears cut out I will be able to position them and figure out the exact shape of the quadrant. My boss told me I could have it cut out on the laser. I said I'm not even close yet. I like that place they are always willing to help me.


The gear sizes are, 3 24 tooth gears 2.60" OD, 3 48 tooth gears 5" OD, 1 64 tooth gear 6.60" OD, 1 76 tooth gear 7.80" OD.

I used the tooth calculator along with the Involute Gear Tooth Gage. As soon as I put the # of teeth in and the 10 pitch in the calculator wham they just started popping out. I like Norms idea of some wooden ones to start out with. Just to see what they come out like. If they look good steel will be next. I found a good piece in the resource pile just for this.

I still need to build the fixture for doing this. That will be the next step.

After doing this I have learnt alot about gears I never knew. I still could learn more too.

Kevin

[Charlie C]

Good for you Kiven. I have cut only one gear actually two in my life time. One I cut with reciprocating cutter( some what like a sewing machine only on a milling machine) the other gear was a rack that I used the sharper to cut the gear. The old rack gear was used as the indexer.

[engineman56]

Ok I had a little time here for some fooling around wid this. I started making the mount for the gear cutting fixture. I guess that's what you would call it. I added some removable rails to the table of the Burke mill. They will not interfere with the movement of any of the axis. That is going to be a great thing.

Of course I couldn't use the holes that were already there that someone had already made. So I found some pretty good pieces in the resource pile. I just had to drill some holes. I had to do a little tapping and they flew right on.

I'm then going to cut out a plate to mount the gear cutting fixture on.

I also found a nice dovetailed sliding table to use for this on the shelf in the shop while I was cleaning up. While I was cleaning up I have a few barrels of scrap and 5 trash cans of trash just laying around in the shop.

Pic 1 shows the tapped holes on the left side of the table I cleaned out and can't use.
Pic 2 A pic of the mill before the rails installed.
Pic 3 & 4 The burke with the rails installed. I'm going to mount the gear cutting fixture plate to. I think I am just going to use the 90* plates for this. Lets try it. I have nothing to lose but a little more time. I have more time than money. So I guess I'll have to take the time. LOL

I am going to cut out the plate tomorrow. I also found the 90* uprights for mounting the slide table to. I'm going to have to do some figuring out how the I'm going to mount the shaft holder to the sliding table.

Dad gave me a nice knob to replace the forward and back axis knob. I just had to make some modifications to it. It was too long and the hole was only 3/8". I'm changing that right now.

I'm going to build a forge too. Jut to melt aluminum in. I think it will be easy to do. The guy in the video says pistons are the best to make some good gears out of. I have tons of old junky pistons from engines that I have built for people. I'm kind of anxious to do some melting here at the house. I think that will be cool.

I can see it I just have to bring it to life.

Kevin

Heres some pics of what I have got done today.

This windows 8 way different than what I am used to. I like it but I still have a lot of learning ahead.

[engineman56]

Today I was working on some things that needed done and after I got them done I had a little time for this. So I added a few other things. Actually I got carried away. I ended up working on this well into the evening/nighttime. LOL

I cut out the plate for the base. That wasn't too bad. I used some countersunk allen screws to mount the plate to the Burke mill table. That was because the plate I used was 3/8" thick. I now know that I could have used a thicker piece. Which I have but I thought it would be an issue with the height. Not so the height is nothing for me to be concerned about.

After I get this done this machine is going to be a 6 axis machine. That will be cool. Another cool thing is all this stuff is removable. It can also be installed on a different machine or pieces and parts are going to be useable for other machining operations. Because everything is able to be unbolted and reassembled on other fixtures.

I have been on this for hours now. So I did get a few more things done than I thought I would. When I was cleaning the shop I managed to find the 90* fixture plates I saved a few years ago for some sort of project. I didn't know what that project was till now. That's what got me going on this. I kinda got obsessed with it. I had to actually stop myself just so I could drink a beer. Actually I got a designer mind block. I had to stop and figure out just how I am going to make the shaft holders for this.

I did get the 90* fixture mounted to the base plate. I also got the slide mounted to the 90* fixture. I did get the pieces mounted for the holders for the gear shaft. I just need to figure out the holders themselves.

I was doing that while I was having a beer. What would really be good is to have a cigarette. I have done some of my best designs while smoking a cigarette. But that's out since I haven't had a cigarette in 15 years. LOL So I guess a beer will have to do. LOL There isn't a day go by that that thought hasn't gone thru my head. LOL

I tried to get some good pics while documenting this. I hope I did good. With all the tapping holes and drilling, along with layout and cutting I don't know where all the time went. I blew thru a whole day.

Here's some pics.

Pic 1 The installation of the new knob. Better than the old handle. Dad had this stashed some where. I asked him if he had a 3" valve handle off some old valve he got in the scrap somewhere. Here he comes up with this.
Pic 2 The side view of it. I had to cut a 1/2" off of it just so it fit the shaft. I also had to drill it out to a 1/2" Because it came with a 3/8" hole.
Pic 3 I was countersinking all the 5/16" holes in the base plate.
Pic 4 The holes drilled and tapped in the rails to accommodate the base plate.
Pic 5 The base plate drilled and tapped for the 90* fixture assemblies. I made them so they could be adjustable for many applications. Depending on what if anything needs to be cut out. I suppose I could bolt what ever to the base plate?