# First time making a gear



## royesses (May 28, 2020)

Since I have a 1.5mm lead screw on my minilathe I decided I could use a 63 tooth change gear to help make imperial threads a bit more accurate. I had an 80 tooth gear that was damaged so I thought I'd use it  as my first victim. I cut it down to 65mm O.D. after mounting it on an expanding arbor. I turned the arbor down for a press fit in the gear, then tightened the expanding screw and cut 1/2-13 threads on it and secured the gear with a large washer and nut to prevent any movement. The minilathe uses Module 1, 20° P.A. gears. I used an LMS 4" 72 to 1 ratio rotary table with a 28 hole index plate, 1 turn plus 4 holes for indexing. Tooth total depth was 2.4mm according to the math and checked out against the original change gears. I had to kind of mickey mouse mounting the rotary table since the minimill doesn't have enough Y axis travel to mount the table on center. I used a #7 gear cutter (55-134 teeth) and matching arbor. The shavings are powder like cast iron. It went smooth with no hiccups. The new gear matches up and runs true.  It only took me 70 years on this earth to make my first gear. I guess you could say I'm a slow learner. It took about 4 hours to do everything including math and installing the index plate setup.
	

		
			
		

		
	










Roy


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## benmychree (May 28, 2020)

Congratulations!  Now that the ice is broken, figure more things that need gears made; over the years, I have cut literally at leas near 100 or so, both spur gears and spiral and a few bevel gears as well, its always fun to do.


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## royesses (May 28, 2020)

benmychree said:


> Congratulations!  Now that the ice is broken, figure more things that need gears made; over the years, I have cut literally at leas near 100 or so, both spur gears and spiral and a few bevel gears as well, its always fun to do.


Thanx, John. It is a lot of fun, this opens up some possibilities for new gadgets. With the help of machinists like you and the many other machinists here it is much easier for hobbyists to accomplish new tasks. 

Roy


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## Lo-Fi (May 28, 2020)

Good job, that's a fantastic result!


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## benmychree (May 28, 2020)

Especially without the fear of getting beat up on suchlike as PM!


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## Ken from ontario (May 28, 2020)

That is an impressive achievement especially on a mini mill. well done Roy.


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## royesses (May 28, 2020)

Thanx guys. All the knowledge available on this forum just makes things easier to accomplish.

Roy





benmychree said:


> Especially without the fear of getting beat up on suchlike as PM!


I read PM every day. I didn't register and don't post since I respect the fact that that is a forum for professional machinists. But, there is a lot of great information there and those guys are brutal with each other. I get a lot of laughs when they flame each other.

Roy


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## ErichKeane (May 28, 2020)

Nice Job!

I did my first gears a few weeks ago for another project!  Fortunately yours are the common size that you can get whole sets for what I paid for 2 cutters  

I'd love to have more gear based projects, but so far I've had only 1 need to cut gears.


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## royesses (May 28, 2020)

ErichKeane said:


> Nice Job!
> 
> I did my first gears a few weeks ago for another project!  Fortunately yours are the common size that you can get whole sets for what I paid for 2 cutters
> 
> I'd love to have more gear based projects, but so far I've had only 1 need to cut gears.



Thanx! Yes I purchased a full set of module cutters. They are china made along with the cutter arbor so rather inexpensive. I've looked at some of the U.S. made cutters for imperial gears and found that they are very expensive but high quality. 

Roy


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## rock_breaker (May 31, 2020)

Well done!!


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