Hello everyone, I'm a very new machinist, that inherited an Enco 109-1000, Which only has the 120/60, and the 120 tooth change gears, with what I believe to be the 24 tooth small gear on the.. input shaft? The shaft that is directly turned be the motor, that begins the train of gears. It is my understanding that the grizzly 4015z is basically the same machine, and that most if not all of the parts interchange. My question is, with my fairly limited budget, which of the change gears offered by grizzly would be most useful the most often? I would like to spend something like 100, 150 dollars, and be able to do most normal cutting task, as well as the more common threading one. Any help and input is appreciated, and I'm exited to start my machinist journey.
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Which Change Gears to Get?
- Thread starter IgnisAcer
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- change gear
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- Mar 12, 2022
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For change gears, one popular option is to 3D print plastic gears. That's what I use on my 7x lathe, and sometimes on my 10" Logan as well. With the 'Gear Plug In' in CAD software, its not very difficult to create the file, and a simple job to make them on a 3D printer. Those Grizzly gears seem expensive to me. If you decide to buy from Grizzly - I'd just buy 'as needed' once you decide on what sort of threading you will be doing - metric or 'inch', etc... You may find lots of other items that are more urgent purchases once you start cutting metal with the lathe- tools, toolholders, etc etc etc
Do the 3d printed gears hold up ok? I actually do have a 3d printer so that would be awesome to atleast figure out what i use that most, I have some tooling that came with the lathe. another question i have is how needed the change gears are for surface finish. I have a very vague understanding of the feeds and speeds, would it help more to alter the depth of cut instead of trying to get a "proper" feed rate with change gears?
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Yes, the plastic gears seem to hold up OK for me...but I do strictly hobby stuff. I print them with high (100% ?) fill so they are pretty much solid. And, if something 'has to break' I'd prefer it to be the cheap change gears. That's not happened yet, though.
BTW, .stl files for some lathe gears are online.The gear selection for normal turning will be probably the one that gives the slowest feed. You can figure out how much the carriage moves sideways for each revolution of the spindle - that will let you put some numbers to the feed rate. For the 7x lathe, that varies between .0040" and .0025" per revolution of the spindle(chuck). That's like a very very fine thread (250+TPI).
If you are just starting out, my suggestion would be to use hand(manual) feeding by turning the carriage handwheel to get a 'feel' for how the tool is cutting, rather than using the 'power feed' right away. Getting the right tool, at center height, with the work moving at the right speed, with the appropriate depth of cut...there are a lot of variables. Plenty to learn, plenty of fun...
Thank you, I appreciate the help, I'll look into those 3d printed gears.Yes, the plastic gears seem to hold up OK for me...but I do strictly hobby stuff. I print them with high (100% ?) fill so they are pretty much solid. And, if something 'has to break' I'd prefer it to be the cheap change gears. That's not happened yet, though.
The gear selection for normal turning will be probably the one that gives the slowest feed. You can figure out how much the carriage moves sideways for each revolution of the spindle - that will let you put some numbers to the feed rate. For the 7x lathe, that varies between .0040" and .0025" per revolution of the spindle(chuck). That's like a very very fine thread (250+TPI).
If you are just starting out, my suggestion would be to use hand(manual) feeding by turning the carriage handwheel to get a 'feel' for how the tool is cutting, rather than using the 'power feed' right away. Getting the right tool, at center height, with the work moving at the right speed, with the appropriate depth of cut...there are a lot of variables. Plenty to learn, plenty of fun...
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- Jan 2, 2019
- Messages
- 7,167
Timely topic, I have a steel transposing gear right now but really want a plastic one for the safety factor. I found this website today that seems to spit out whatever gear you want in an STL file.
Will be printing one tonight to see how it works.
John
Will be printing one tonight to see how it works.
John
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2022
- Messages
- 233
Thanks for that link - it looks like an excellent resource.I found this website today that seems to spit out whatever gear you want in an STL file.
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2019
- Messages
- 7,167
So, I might be dense, I am taking a math class now so maybe in a month or two I'll be able to answer this for myself. But....
I'm unclear what gear I need to switch between imperial and metric threading. The gear above has 80 teeth, which is what the original that I have is. I know some folks use 100/127 tooth gears to change between systems, is that what I need?
Any help is appreciated. Printing gears is dead simple but getting the right ones is a little more complicated....
Maybe it's just a case of using all the gears that came in a little box with the lathe but it sure would be simpler if I could just change this one. Marked "B" in the photo above.
Thanks,
John
I'm unclear what gear I need to switch between imperial and metric threading. The gear above has 80 teeth, which is what the original that I have is. I know some folks use 100/127 tooth gears to change between systems, is that what I need?
Any help is appreciated. Printing gears is dead simple but getting the right ones is a little more complicated....
Maybe it's just a case of using all the gears that came in a little box with the lathe but it sure would be simpler if I could just change this one. Marked "B" in the photo above.
Thanks,
John