# Purchasing Gears



## Kroll (May 29, 2018)

Guys reading all this fantastic gear information but where can a common guy purchase say just one gear at a fair price?Looking for a 34T 16DP 14 1/2 PA if I figure correctly.Is there a Gear Depot someplace?


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## DAT510 (May 29, 2018)

Boston Gear or McMaster Carr is where I've had decent luck. 

Motion Industries also has Gears, but I've never purchased from them.  https://www.motionindustries.com/productDetail.jsp?sku=00367216

Is it for Lathe or something else?  For Lathes, company's like Grizzly often carry them for the models they carry or sold in the past.  I


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## RJSakowski (May 29, 2018)

SDP/SI sells inch and metric gears. I have bought as few as two gears from them in the past.
http://www.sdp-si.com/products/Gears/Index.php


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## Bob Korves (May 29, 2018)

DAT510 said:


> Boston Gear or McMaster Carr is where I've had decent luck.
> 
> Motion Industries also has Gears, but I've never purchased from them.  https://www.motionindustries.com/productDetail.jsp?sku=00367216
> 
> Is it for Lathe or something else?  For Lathes, company's like Grizzly often carry them for the models they carry or sold in the past.  I


I contacted Boston gear a couple days ago with a gear part number I wanted a quote on.  This is the answer I got from them after three days:
----------------------
Hello Bob,
I am the Area Sales Manager for Northern California. I saw your request and I need to direct you to one of our authorized distributors. In the Sacramento area, these include Motion Industries, Kaman Industrial Technologies, Applied Industrial Technologies and Bearing Engineering. Any can help with pricing and availability.
Thank you,
Robert Forsyth

Area Sales Manager

Altra Industrial Motion Corp.
(916) 540-0073
----------------------

So, bottom line:  He works for the people he was referring me to...
-Bob


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## Groundhog (May 29, 2018)

https://www.khkgears.us/


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## Bob Korves (May 30, 2018)

Groundhog said:


> https://www.khkgears.us/


All metric.  I need an imperial gear to mate with the rest of the existing gear train...  But thanks, Mike, I saved the link for later...


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## Groundhog (May 30, 2018)

There is a gear company in KC, Mo. that has pretty reasonable prices considering they are mostly custom made (I think). I have the name & info somewhere in my old ski area files - I'll find it tomorrow if you want.


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## Bob Korves (May 30, 2018)

No worries, Mike.  I am going to try to fly cut the gear out of bronze to replace the stripped Micarta one.  I have everything needed on hand.  Tiny teeth, 48DP, 96 teeth, 2" pitch diameter...


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## benmychree (Jun 1, 2018)

I might have a cutter for that --- Is it 14 1/2 deg, or 20 deg?


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## benmychree (Jun 1, 2018)

Spoke too soon; my collection only goes to 40DP.


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## Holescreek (Jun 1, 2018)

I had to buy a bunch of gears and I learned the cheapest routes to get them.

Boston gear does not sell direct. After waiting a couple of days someone will finally contact you to tell you that and suggest you buy locally from your bearing supplier (who also sells gears).  The price you get locally will be about $80 higher than any online price.

Find out the number of the gear you need from Boston gear (in your case it might be a GB34) Then search Amazon to see what their lowest price is but don't buy it yet.  https://www.amazon.com/Boston-Gear-...D=41u%2BJ6c-0gL&preST=_SX342_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Go to https://www.mrosupply.com/ and search there.
https://www.mrosupply.com/gears-gear-rack/change-gears/35188_10128_boston-gear/

Typically MROsupply will have the best price, but not this time.  Amazon sells it today for $12.


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## Bob Korves (Jun 2, 2018)

Bob Korves said:


> No worries, Mike.  I am going to try to fly cut the gear out of bronze to replace the stripped Micarta one.  I have everything needed on hand.  Tiny teeth, 48DP, 96 teeth, 2" pitch diameter...


All was going well on this project until I looked up the dividing head setup needed for the 96T gear.  Turns out it cannot be done with simple indexing with my dividing head which uses the standard B&S 40:1 ratio and dividing plates.  96 teeth requires differential indexing, which I do not have.  None of the store bought gears available were really close to what I needed, and the ones that might be usable are stupidly expensive for this little project.

So, a question.  I found that I can divide to 48 divisions using my dividing head as intended, which is half of the needed 96 divisions.  Is there a reasonable way to cut two 48 tooth patterns on the same blank, separated accurately from each other by half a division, without fancy pants measures?


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## Rob (Jun 3, 2018)

You could make a simple dividing head using a 96T gear.  Here is one on eBay fairly cheap.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/RRP1896-Ro...076097&hash=item1c6539a98f:g:K7oAAOSwLnBX7XxO


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## rgray (Jun 3, 2018)

Bob Korves said:


> All was going well on this project until I looked up the dividing head setup needed for the 96T gear. Turns out it cannot be done with simple indexing with my dividing head which uses the standard B&S 40:1 ratio and dividing plates. 96 teeth requires differential indexing, which I do not have. None of the store bought gears available were really close to what I needed, and the ones that might be usable are stupidly expensive for this little project.



That is why I went electronic. http://www.liming.org/millindex/


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## Bob Korves (Jun 3, 2018)

Rob said:


> You could make a simple dividing head using a 96T gear.  Here is one on eBay fairly cheap.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/RRP1896-Ro...076097&hash=item1c6539a98f:g:K7oAAOSwLnBX7XxO





rgray said:


> That is why I went electronic. http://www.liming.org/millindex/


Great ideas, both, but this project is not even close to being worth the time, cost, and effort of building new tooling for it.


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## mickri (Jun 4, 2018)

I was planning to make the gears that I would need to be able to cut metric threads on my lathe.  I need a 32, 44, 52 and 54 change gears.  I will also need one change gear stud with a spacer.  When I figured out the time and trouble to make a gear cutting fixture, buy the cutters and the stock for the gears.  Plus an allowance for screw ups.  This was not going to be an easy undertaking for an inexperienced newbe to machining.   As a cross check to my insanity to try to make my own gears I checked on Ebay for the cost to buy the gears and quickly came to the realization that I would be way better off buying the gears.  So I am going to buy the gears.   I'll check whatever other sources I can find to try to get the best price.   Gears on Ebay look to run from $20 to $25 per gear including the shipping.


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## CNCTOOLEXPRESS (Feb 10, 2019)

We have a large selection of gears, shafts, etc. for DIY projects
www.cnctoolexpress.com


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## markba633csi (Feb 12, 2019)

Amazon sometimes has fantastic prices on certain Boston gears- maybe clearing old inventory?


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## jwmay (Feb 19, 2019)

Bob Korves said:


> Is there a reasonable way to cut two 48 tooth patterns on the same blank, separated accurately from each other by half a division, without fancy pants measures?


 Pretty recently, there was a thread where a fellow was using a printed wheel with divisions as his indexing guide for making gears.  It consisted of what looked like a piece of plywood, a shaft, a pointer, and a wheel that he'd printed off the computer with the number of lines he needed, equally spaced.  There was another gentleman who was adamant that the work couldn't be done without differential indexing, but the fellow doing it seemed pretty satisfied with his results.  So yeah that may be more time, or less accurate, than your project demands...I don't know.  But it seemed a pretty simple set up, and it was endorsed wholeheartedly by the person who had done it.  I know I could print off a wheel with 96 equally spaced divisions in about 5 minutes.  So long as you have a way to tie the indexing portion to the work, and a way to lock rotation, it seems plausible to me.


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## Bob Korves (Feb 19, 2019)

jwmay said:


> Pretty recently, there was a thread where a fellow was using a printed wheel with divisions as his indexing guide for making gears.  It consisted of what looked like a piece of plywood, a shaft, a pointer, and a wheel that he'd printed off the computer with the number of lines he needed, equally spaced.  There was another gentleman who was adamant that the work couldn't be done without differential indexing, but the fellow doing it seemed pretty satisfied with his results.  So yeah that may be more time, or less accurate, than your project demands...I don't know.  But it seemed a pretty simple set up, and it was endorsed wholeheartedly by the person who had done it.  I know I could print off a wheel with 96 equally spaced divisions in about 5 minutes.  So long as you have a way to tie the indexing portion to the work, and a way to lock rotation, it seems plausible to me.


Thanks, jmway for the kind offer.  It could likely be done with far fewer than 96 divisions on a 40:1 dividing head, and the plastic would probably work OK for a one off project that is staying in the earth's atmosphere.  However, I have dropped that approach to the project and am looking in different directions now.  A stepper motor made into a universal dividing plate interface to fit the dividing head would probably also work, and would be really versatile, but is way ahead of my skills and again, not worth the effort for this one scrapped project...


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## savarin (Feb 19, 2019)

jwmay said:


> Pretty recently, there was a thread where a fellow was using a printed wheel with divisions as his indexing guide for making gears.  It consisted of what looked like a piece of plywood, a shaft, a pointer, and a wheel that he'd printed off the computer with the number of lines he needed, equally spaced.



I wonder if I was that gentleman?
I did cut a gear that way
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/tumbler-reverse.10122/ at post 21
and post 26 shows the cutting.
I print the scales off here
http://www.cgtk.co.uk/metalwork/reference/divider 
That gear is still in use today with no problems.
I've printed many of those disks off for various jobs and yes they are not EXACT they were more than close enough to perfect for me.
The last set were 100 divs and 110 divs for new divisions around a dial and the 110 for a short section for a vernier.


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