Hendey lathe idler gear

[682bear]

I was attempting to chase down an oil leak on my 1919 Hendey tie bar lathe... I removed the guards from the gears on the end of the headstock and found that one of the gears has 6 broken teeth. Only half of each tooth is broken off, the other half of each is still there, so the gear works fine, but would not have the strength of undamaged teeth.

As I removed the guard, I found one of the broken pieces laying inside the guard. I'm not sure what caused the broken teeth.



I'm looking for opinions on how best to fix this... I have searched ebay and a few other sites looking for a replacement with no luck.

I'm considering attempting to build the broken teeth up with either weld or brazing, but I would be limited to trying to hand blend them back to shape, I don't have a setup to cut gears on my mill.

I've considered trying to find a shop that would make a new gear, but I know that will be pricey...

It is a 36 tooth, 14 DP gear (not sure on the pressure angle yet, probably 14 ½ degree) and is made of extremely hard steel. Anything that I do as a repair will be significantly softer, but I'm not really sure that it needs to be that hard...

I'm also looking at buying a dividing head...
I can't spend a lot on one right now, does anyone have any experience with the sub-$400 5 inch chinesium heads?

Advice is appreciated...

-Bear

 

[Lo-Fi]

Great gear repair video here and it just happens to be for a Hendey:

Been a few threads recently about import dividing heads - some seem to be pretty good. If you're in the market for one, gear repair is a great justification.

 

[benmychree]

Weld/braze repair would not be an option, as being able to recut the tooth spaces would be near impossible, and also would result in softening the entire gear. If it was mine, I would make a new gear to replace it. I really like tie bar Hendy lathes, never owned one, also really REALLY like Pratt & Whitney toolroom lathes. ditto on ownership ---

 

[682bear]

Update: after cleaning the gear thouroughly in degreaser, I discovered there are at least 6 more teeth that have obvious cracks at the root...

So, I went ahead and hit the 'buy' button on a new BS-1 dividing head from Precision Matthews...

I've been looking at the cutters, I'm finding prices ranging from about $22 to almost $500...

And I have to decide what material to make the gear out of... some type of steel that would be easy to heat treat at home I suppose...

I'll get it figured out... maybe!

-Bear