cutting gears

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knifer-one

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Planning on buying a couple of gear cutters to practice with(my hands on self-teaching)What would be a good choice? I know that there lots of sizes,pressure angles, pitch angles,etc. etc.
Someone simplify it for me.If you had a choice of 2 cutters,what would they be?
 
Knifer,

You may want to check out the following thread: Cutting Gears With a Simple Hob

The link describes a method of making your own hob for whatever gear you desire and generate the gear teeth using a dividing head. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like a good way to cut gears without having to invest in a bunch of expensive and specialized form cutters.

Tom
 
Hello Knifer,

This question seems made for me!

I am in process of building an Upshur Farm Boy H&M engine (been 'in process' for a long time!) and it requires two gears so I bought three cutters: Gear Cutter 48 Pitch, 1-3/4" Cutter Diameter, Cutter #2, #3, and #4 that will produce gears with http://www.mcmaster.com/#3034A223. The # 2 will cut 55 - 134 teeth; #3 35 - 54 teeth; and #4 26 to 34 teeth.

They are expensive but a good quality and I expect these three will cover about 80 - 90% or more of my needs.

Lots of fun on a dividing head!
 
knifer-one said:
Planning on buying a couple of gear cutters to practice with(my hands on self-teaching)What would be a good choice? I know that there lots of sizes,pressure angles, pitch angles,etc. etc.
Someone simplify it for me.If you had a choice of 2 cutters,what would they be?
Click to expand...

Knifer-one

It is hard to give you a simplified answer. If you want to learn to cut gears in the home shop I would recommend the book Gears & Gear Cutting (Workshop Practice Series 17). This book explains the process in terms that makes gears at home practical. It even explains how to make some simple tooling in the home shop to cut your custom gears. By the time you read this book you probably will have several gear projects in mind and how you want to tackle the projects.

A link to the book for sale http://www.amazon.com/Gears-Gear-Cutting-Workshop-Practice/dp/0852429118

Be careful if you order the book. The book is not expensive but when I ordered it from another vendor I got hit with a $14 plus shipping fee, thats more that the book cost!

There are a lot of links online by others who have cut gears and made their own tooling. Gears are neat to make but it is neater to make some you can use for something.

Benny
 
MikeA said:
Hello Knifer,

This question seems made for me!

I am in process of building an Upshur Farm Boy H&M engine (been 'in process' for a long time!) and it requires two gears so I bought three cutters: Gear Cutter 48 Pitch, 1-3/4" Cutter Diameter, Cutter #2, #3, and #4 that will produce gears with http://www.mcmaster.com/#3034A223. The # 2 will cut 55 - 134 teeth; #3 35 - 54 teeth; and #4 26 to 34 teeth.

They are expensive but a good quality and I expect these three will cover about 80 - 90% or more of my needs.

Lots of fun on a dividing head!
Click to expand...

How did you come to determine the 48 pitch on the cutters?
 
knifer-one said:
How did you come to determine the 48 pitch on the cutters?
Click to expand...

Hello Knifer,


The easiest way - that's what it said on the plans!!:lmao:

Figured most engines in that size are probably close enough to that pitch, and after checking a few other plans find it's quite commonly used.

Now obviously, if you're thinking of making some new gears for your thread train on the lathe, whole different ballpark.
 
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