I am not making a sheet metal roller, these gears are replacements for an old roller, the original gears were TOTALLY shot from rust. I cut each tooth in a single pass. With a 10 pitch the cutting depth is only .216"
Mike, yes, the gear blank was just a press fit on the mandrel, but tight enough there was no danger of the cutting pressure moving it. These are just plain spur gears so, yes, the cutter would be running at 90 degrees to the gear.
Steve, all 4 COULD have been cut at once, but I don't think my mandrel would have been long enough. I suppose it is possible to make one long gear, cut all the teeth and then part them off, but these being my first gears, I just made them individually. I doubt much time would have been saved anyway, it only took 2-3 minutes to press the completed gear off the mandrel, press on the next blank and mount back between the centers of the dividing head and tailstock.
At some point in the future I will have to make at least one helical gear that I know of. I have an antique 4-cylinder, twin camshaft engine that uses an idler gear between the crank gear and the two cam gears. Since this idler gear is meshing with 3 gears, it is getting 3 times the wear and consequently the teeth are worn until they are so sharp you could shave with them! I have looked for a better replacement gear, but all the other ones I have found are just as badly worn.
