I recently acquired a B & S #2 surface grinder as a candidate for restoration. Most of the work needed is minor in nature, however I have realized that the table drive pinion gear and intermediate gear are severely worn with massive backlash. The rack on the underside of the table seems ok from a visual inspection.
I contacted Bourne & Kotch to inquire about replacement gears only to have them quote me about $2400.00 for the 2 gears. I figured the OEM is always going to rape you on prices so I contacted a commercial gear maker called rushgears. They quoted a whopping $4,000.00 for the 2 gears making the OEM seem like a bargain.
I calculated from the OD of 1.7 inch and 3.7 inch and number of teeth they are 10 DP 15 tooth steel and 35 tooth cast iron spur gears with a 1 inch face width.
I have a bridgeport and a lathe and after watching some youtube vids, I think I might be able to make the gears myself. The material cost from online metals is around $35.00 and I'm confident I can turn and bore the blanks pretty easily. I have never made a gear as I don't have the required tooling.
There was no way to measure the pressure angle from the worn gears so I turned a gauge plug with a 29 deg taper and a 40 deg taper on an aluminum rod using the lathe compound and fitted them to the rack. the 29 was almost a perfect fit in the rack so I can safely assume a 14.5 deg pressure angle.
I'm putting together a list of things I would need for this project. I have a precice 12 inch rotary table but with the odd number of teeth I think I'll be better suited with a dividing head which I don't have yet, I'm looking at a Taiwan made, not Chinese B&S 0 head with tail stock. It's about twice the price of the Chinese one. Will this be rigid enough for the job or would I need a B&S 1 head?
I will also need a 3/4 and 1 inch mandrel, an R8 stub arbor and I think a #3 and #7 10DP cutter for the teeth ranges on each gear.
I also need a broach setup for the small gear to cut 2 keyways.
so far I'm looking at about $800.00 in tooling alone. If I have to go for the larger dividing head then we are closer to $1100.
What's my probability of success? I would hate to dump this money and have it not work out
Any thoughts, recommendations?
Thanks
I contacted Bourne & Kotch to inquire about replacement gears only to have them quote me about $2400.00 for the 2 gears. I figured the OEM is always going to rape you on prices so I contacted a commercial gear maker called rushgears. They quoted a whopping $4,000.00 for the 2 gears making the OEM seem like a bargain.
I calculated from the OD of 1.7 inch and 3.7 inch and number of teeth they are 10 DP 15 tooth steel and 35 tooth cast iron spur gears with a 1 inch face width.
I have a bridgeport and a lathe and after watching some youtube vids, I think I might be able to make the gears myself. The material cost from online metals is around $35.00 and I'm confident I can turn and bore the blanks pretty easily. I have never made a gear as I don't have the required tooling.
There was no way to measure the pressure angle from the worn gears so I turned a gauge plug with a 29 deg taper and a 40 deg taper on an aluminum rod using the lathe compound and fitted them to the rack. the 29 was almost a perfect fit in the rack so I can safely assume a 14.5 deg pressure angle.
I'm putting together a list of things I would need for this project. I have a precice 12 inch rotary table but with the odd number of teeth I think I'll be better suited with a dividing head which I don't have yet, I'm looking at a Taiwan made, not Chinese B&S 0 head with tail stock. It's about twice the price of the Chinese one. Will this be rigid enough for the job or would I need a B&S 1 head?
I will also need a 3/4 and 1 inch mandrel, an R8 stub arbor and I think a #3 and #7 10DP cutter for the teeth ranges on each gear.
I also need a broach setup for the small gear to cut 2 keyways.
so far I'm looking at about $800.00 in tooling alone. If I have to go for the larger dividing head then we are closer to $1100.
What's my probability of success? I would hate to dump this money and have it not work out
Any thoughts, recommendations?
Thanks