# Making gears for the 10L



## Pacer (Jun 22, 2011)

Am deep into the rebuild of my "new" 10L (1944!) and probably as should be expected, there are some _very_ worn parts. The gear box and the gear train down to it had some pretty bad spots. The 2 reversing gears and the big gear that was driven off them, and the gear running off the selector handle on the box (this one was more like a bicycle sprocket than a gear!!) Also the boxes 2 main gear shafts that have bushings on one end and just the housing on the other were worn badly with out bushes, so I had to bore the housing out and press in 2 oilite bronze bushes.

A couple pics of the gear cutting - I wanted to encourage those of you that might be faced with badly worn gears and being fearful of cutting them in your shop. As a still learning wannabe machinist, I found "gearcutting" to be a daunting subject, and it is indeed a very deep subject, but for doing this type of making up a gear, it is much less involved, and with a lathe, mill and a dividing head is relatively simple. You will be simply duplicating an already existing formula for the teeth, dimensions, etc. 

A tip on counting teeth - using a small tipped magic marker, put a long slash mark for the starting point and then tick off every 5 teeth with a small mark...

With access to this, and the many other forums, - and google and youtube! the means to teach yourself how is readily available. I got my feet wet by making a complete 10 gear metric change set for the Emco Compact 10 I was rebuilding - I only messed up 4 blanks, and they were of smaller gears - (metric was fun!)

This is the 2 reverse gears ganged in the dividing head cutting the 28 teeth. Replacing the original cast iron gears with steel wasnt gonna ride too well as steel on steel, so I also pressed in oilite bushes on the new gear blanks (the 4 gears were made from whatever was in the scrap box - probably 1018) ...




This is the new reverse gears mounted on new turned up shafts on the reverse lever, the shifter handle 27t gear mounted, and the large 64t gear blank mounted on its mandrel ready to go in the dividing head, the old gears are in the pic too.


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## martik777 (Jun 30, 2011)

I PM'd you, maybe you didn't see it? What kind of milling head are you using there?


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## Pacer (Jun 30, 2011)

Martik, no, I didnt get a PM ...

By 'milling head' do you mean the mill brand name, or type? Or?

Anyway - I have a 9x42 Bridgeport clone made by ENCO running an involute gear cutter from Travers held in an R-8 collet. The gear blanks are held in a dividing head & tailstock - again from ENCO, (I like to take advantage of ENCO's free shipping ;D)

Hope this answered you question, if not, feel free to ask more...


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## martik777 (Jul 2, 2011)

Thanks, I thought it was a milling head attached to your lathe but I see it's a separate milling machine now.


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## Pacer (Jul 2, 2011)

More adventures with gear cutting --

I finished up the gear box and gear train, ended up making 5 new gears and the 2 main shafts with new oilite bushing.

Have now moved on to the apron, and WOW! this thing is gonna rival the gear box in complexity - I'm dreading trying to figure out the maze of felt wicking that it takes. Its in a little better condition than the gear box, with this shaft/gear requiring replacement. Its the hand wheel pinion shaft with the hand wheel turning it and the gear riding on the rack under the ways moving the apron/saddle, so I figured that taking the slop out of that area was critical. As seen in the pic the teeth were VERY worn and the end of the shaft was worn pretty badly also. This was a pretty simple make, with the digging around in the scrap box for a blank, then doing the lathe work, then making up a mandrel for the cutter ..... well, when I finally started cutting the gear, it only took about 20 minutes to do that!


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## Pacer (Jul 2, 2011)

DaveH link=topic=2540.msg17993#msg17993 date=1309649186 said:
			
		

> Pacer,
> Nice looking gears
> 
> Will the gears you are making have to be hardend?
> ...



No, the gears aren't the least bit hardened - IIRC I read or was told that that far back SB used 12L14 or equivalent. I have made gears for my other Taiwan SB and my Emco and the material in them was also one of the more soft steels. When I made the 10 change gears for the Emco, I had to call in help from buddies to put together the necessary blanks - from about 2" up to over 5" and ended up with almost every gear made from a different steel. Probably 95% of my steel comes from the scrap yard, with its make-up mostly unknown.


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## MarkBall2 (Jul 4, 2011)

Pacer, do you make gears for other folks?

Reason I ask, I have need for a compound gear 32/16 tooth count with a 1/2" bore (oil lite bushing) for my Craftsman Quick Change Gear Box. I could supply the original broken gear as a reference if you would be willing to attempt it.

My mill isn't running yet (VFD's are expensive, so is tooling) and my lathe gear cutting won't cut steel.


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## Pacer (Jul 4, 2011)

> Pacer, do you make gears for other folks?



Mark,
I would have liked to have that as a project a couple months ago - I had run out of 'projects' - Alas and alack, I now have TOO MANY 'projects' , sorry...


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## MarkBall2 (Jul 4, 2011)

If you decide you need a quick project, let me know. I'll send the gear &amp; you can make it.

Basically it's two gears, the 16 tooth gear presses into the 32 tooth gear, then a bronze bushing goes in the bore. I think these are 14.5 DP. I have it written down on a different computer.

Just let me know. If no new projects in the next month or so, I'll just order one from Clausing.


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