UNIVERSAL DIVIDING HEAD BS-2 PARTS

You can see in the pictures below what I meant by the mesh not being very deep.
Yes I can see that. The teeth on the blue one actually look a little fatter than the black one....... hmmmm.

There was one issue when printing these. I had most done but then left the two last black one (or two?) to print overnight, since it can take hours to print. The next morning I noticed it looked "done", but the printer spool was totally out of filament. I guess there was not enough left on the black spool to finish the print, but the gear(s) initially looked okay.

Later on I was playing with them getting ready to ream the bores and notice two gears were not as thick as the others, and I realized those were the last ones printed. So I found a new spool of filament that happened to be blue and reprinted just those two gears that were "thin".

When I packaged them up for shipping, I decided to just throw all of them into the package as I had no immediate use for gears of those dimensions, and maybe they'd be useful to you.

Therefore I believe there should be some duplicates in the batch I sent; likely one or two extra black ones that are just a little thinner towards one edge.

However I thought the blue ones would be better.
I am almost certain I used the same stl file for those duplicate/replacements. I need to save and use the intermediate files, so I would not likely re-generate them different.
Perhaps that blue filament should have had different bed and/or nozzle temperature settings on the 3D-printer.
Perhaps they either spread/flowed a little during the print, or even warped due to heat?

Do two black ones mate together better?

Please don't take it wrong,I am not complaining at all,I am just mentioning the next point for your information.

No worries on the feedback!
That was our deal, I would supply them for real honest feedback.
I appreciate it, please post any and all comments you have.

Brian

EDIT: and can you get a shot of both the black and the blue plastic ones mating with your steel originals? -Thanks!
 
Last edited:
and can you get a shot of both the black and the blue plastic ones mating with your steel originals? -Thanks!
I will give a full feedback on them on Monday and pics offcorse. I do remember the big blue one was a bit warped. I will mesh some with the steel ones too and post pics.
 
Hey Brian

So as you can see from the pics,the two blue gears are slightly warped and the theeth are a bit deformed. That's probably because of the heat you spoke about?
20230523_110632.jpg20230523_110648.jpg
I noticed that you send one extra 38 tooth gear and it is that one that is slightly thinner at 17mm,the second 24 tooth gear I asked for as I remember. One of those also have slightly deformed teeth.
20230523_111818.jpg
Here they are all together.
20230523_111623.jpg
Below you can see how the original gears mesh with eachother and how the other gears mesh with them and to eachother. All round.......I am a happy chappie.still could not find time to mount it on the mil......yet.
20230523_110335.jpg20230523_110450.jpg20230523_110519.jpg20230523_110541.jpg20230523_111015.jpg20230523_111037.jpg20230523_111053.jpg
 
So, this is just my guess and a question for those more knowledgeable:

The gears aren’t perfect and don’t mesh as nice as they could. I assume this would make for less smooth operation…
But! Am I incorrect in thinking the ‘gear count’ is the important part! They seem “good enough”.

For a dividing head they should still accomplish the slow speed task with decent accuracy?

I guess there could be some slight turning speed inconsistencies if the gear mismatch causes some speed up/slow down with imperfect gears…
But that seems like it would be minimal to me?
 
From the start I was hoping the plastic 3D-printed gears would be "good enough" to use.
Hopefully, as long as they provide an accurate "dividing ratio" Michael can use them to make real metal replacements.

However, I am discouraged by the deformation that Michael showed in the first three photos of post 83.
I didn't notice it when they were in my hands, I guess I was just trying to get them done and shipped.

I'd like to learn from this, so if anyone knowledgeable in 3D printing would chime in I would appreciate it!

Brian
 
Back
Top