Fabricating wood gears

Already been there, already have his sw, just looking at fabrication options. A scroll saw is certainly on the table, combined with the DRO-generated inter-gear hole circle.
 
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A quick and dirty way is to drill holes using your tool holder and dividing in the headstock using sprockets.



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Those CNC routers are so cheap I'm surprised we're not up to our eyeballs in wooden clocks :D
 
Well,. speaking only for myself, I cannot justify one at this time because I don't know how many I would build. Also, why stop there, ;CO2 laser cutter saren't far behind, and there's no issue with sawdust.

There also the problem of having a shop that's just too small for everything I want to build/buy!
 
You may already be aware of Clayton Boyer in Hawaii who designs and sells wooden clock plans. His designs are terrific. A simple search will find his web site. I bought some plans from him a few years ago and he provides a complete parts list with his plans and is very helpful if you have any questions. I'm not sure if he still does, but he originally mailed paper plans. The most common way is to photo copy and print a 1:1 size printout of the part and use spray adhesive to glue it to the wood and use a scroll saw to cut the gears. He now provides digital cad drawings for some of his designs and you can then use a CNC router, mill or laser to cut the parts using wood or even acrylic. Before he provided the digital plans I simply scanned and converted them into cad files myself. I've tried both manual and CNC methods and the CNC router is obviously the easiest, but some prefer the more hands on manual woodworking methods of scroll sawing. Any other parts (brass tubing etc) required you can normally find at a local hardware store or on online. Scroll saws are actually fairly inexpensive and you can find them used on craigslist etc for fairly cheap. I just checked the San Diego area and there are quite a few... most under $200 and many $100 or less. A little research should help selecting a decent model that cuts well. With a little practice you'll have no problems cutting the gears. All in all a fun project you'll be proud of if you decide to build one.
 
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I've used a laser cutter cutting thin veneer (~1/16 inch that I made myself). I then laminated 4 layers per gear to make small 4 ply gears for stability. I put pin holes for the laser to cut and used them for registration in as special jig to laminate with epoxy.

It's pretty easy to find a friend with a laser cutter or a makerspace that has one. You can't cut to thick on anything but a really high power laser. The beam always burns a v-groove cut. Angle depends on how fast you cut, depth of focus and laser power.

check out:
 
kb58 said:
So I'm getting an itch to make a wooden clock (which traditionally use wood gears). I've watched a lot of videos and read how people do it, but thought I'd ask here. Here are some of the various methods I found, arranged with the suspected quality from okay to best:
  1. Cut them out entirely by hand (via scroll saw)
  2. Use a router somehow, most likely with a pattern piece, but then there's how to make that...
  3. Drill holes at the gear roots, then cut the sides with a band saw or scroll saw.
  4. Drill the above holes using a mill's DRO feature of holes-on-center.
  5. Use a rotary table and appropriately sized end mill as a router bit
  6. Use a dividing head and the proper gear cutter in a mill (though I don't know how well it would work on wood)
  7. Give up on wood gears altogether and do #6 with brass
Okay, any other methods that I'm missing? The thing is, I want to build one clock for starters, then decide if it's something I want to get into. At the moment, I have a mill, but no dividing head, gear cutters, or scroll saw.

What say you?
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#6 since you have a mill. A full set of cutters runs about $90.00 I have not made wood gears for clocks but have made several gears just to learn how to make them before I tried it in steel. I found that the smaller gears, under 1-3/4" are best made in metal or Acetal. I broke a couple of small gears and switched to aluminum for the under 2" ones. I used a rotary table vertically.
mike
 
mike44 said:
#6 since you have a mill. A full set of cutters runs about $90.00 I have not made wood gears for clocks but have made several gears just to learn how to make them before I tried it in steel. I found that the smaller gears, under 1-3/4" are best made in metal or Acetal. I broke a couple of small gears and switched to aluminum for the under 2" ones. I used a rotary table vertically.
mike
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Mike, I would love to find a set of gear cutters for $90! Can you provide a link?
-Dave
 
Since there is some interest in my thread, you guys might like the software, "Gearotic." It's pretty fantastic for designing geared mechanisms. Since the author has some interest in clocks, he includes special gears and ratchets as well. Just Google the term and check out the videos.

Regarding Clayton Boyer's clock plans, oh yes, his site is what got me interested in clock making, and I own his clock design book.
 
This whole clock making thing may veer off into building a CNC router, but the thought has many questions attached to it. Why build one instead of buying used? If it's to also cut aluminum, why not just start with a small used mill as the platform instead of starting from scratch? Why go with a loud and messy CNC router for cutting wood? CO2 lasers are silent other than the fans, and you don't have to worry about spindle side-loading. If CNC is being considered, why not just buy a clock kit?

Or, does none of the logic matter, since we do this just for fun?!
 
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