- Joined
- Feb 7, 2014
- Messages
- 350
I almost canceled this project. Tooling was lost by the shipper, the metals order was back ordered, and then lost. I finally get the metal and find that for some unknown reason, half way through the order, I started ordering 6- 1” pieces instead of 1-6” piece. There are some days and some projects that the universe doesn’t like. My boss never let us engineers go home on days when the laws of physics were suspended, so I’m not going to start going with the flow now.
The gear blanks were a fun exercise. It would have been nice to have one of the X thingies that move the part away from the chuck face, or a smaller 4-jaw chuck to fit my 1” long pieces of metal. And a vice on the 4X6 band saw to cut short pieces with. I managed the saw issue by clamping a drill press vice in the saw, then clamping the round stock in it. I cut about 80% of the way through, put a wedge in the kerf, then turned the stock over and finished the cut. A small stock holder is on the list now. I hate to throw away itty bitty pieces of material.
So after slicing, dicing, and turning, I end up with this -
Notice the stacks of 1” stock in the background. The stub mandrel with the cutter mounted turned out to be concentric challenged. Not being able to power feed away from the headstock has me turning parts around that I really shouldn’t. This project will fix the missing tumbler, too. Being able to turn between centers is also on my list, so at some point I will fabricate a family of lathe dogs. The one I bought for this project needs extensive modification to fit my drive plate. The teeth on the #6 cutter are more worn on one side than the other. Hopefully the slightly deeper cut will not screw up the mesh.
So a trip through this set up and I have gear teeth.
Yes, that is a horizontal rotary table bolted to an angle plate standing in for a dividing head.
And now for the teeth -
The gear on the lower right is the result of setting up the mill for 30 teeth, then deciding to start with 40 tooth blanks after all. The cutter was changed, but then I got called away to dinner, then a TV show, and returning to the shop in auto pilot, I cut 40 teeth into the plastic blank. It meshes reasonably well with a module 1 gear, and the teeth are a bit pointy. That is why there is a white and a black idler gear.
Next are the axles, which will be used to test fit the sleeve bearings and the clutch.
The gear blanks were a fun exercise. It would have been nice to have one of the X thingies that move the part away from the chuck face, or a smaller 4-jaw chuck to fit my 1” long pieces of metal. And a vice on the 4X6 band saw to cut short pieces with. I managed the saw issue by clamping a drill press vice in the saw, then clamping the round stock in it. I cut about 80% of the way through, put a wedge in the kerf, then turned the stock over and finished the cut. A small stock holder is on the list now. I hate to throw away itty bitty pieces of material.
So after slicing, dicing, and turning, I end up with this -
Notice the stacks of 1” stock in the background. The stub mandrel with the cutter mounted turned out to be concentric challenged. Not being able to power feed away from the headstock has me turning parts around that I really shouldn’t. This project will fix the missing tumbler, too. Being able to turn between centers is also on my list, so at some point I will fabricate a family of lathe dogs. The one I bought for this project needs extensive modification to fit my drive plate. The teeth on the #6 cutter are more worn on one side than the other. Hopefully the slightly deeper cut will not screw up the mesh.
So a trip through this set up and I have gear teeth.
Yes, that is a horizontal rotary table bolted to an angle plate standing in for a dividing head.
And now for the teeth -
The gear on the lower right is the result of setting up the mill for 30 teeth, then deciding to start with 40 tooth blanks after all. The cutter was changed, but then I got called away to dinner, then a TV show, and returning to the shop in auto pilot, I cut 40 teeth into the plastic blank. It meshes reasonably well with a module 1 gear, and the teeth are a bit pointy. That is why there is a white and a black idler gear.
Next are the axles, which will be used to test fit the sleeve bearings and the clutch.