Making gears.

H

Hukshawn

Forum Guest
Register Today
At some point I’ll be making some gears to use in an x axis power feed, or a knee feed, or whatever purpose I find that I need gears. I have no set pitch, or diameter, or tooth count. Is there a general gear cutter that most people turn to for general use? I realize it’s allllllll specific to the size and number of teeth, but, I’m starting from nothing and nowhere. Is this something that can be answered even befor I’ve ironed out details?
 
I consider myself a newbie in the world of machining, however gears need to match or they will destroy each other due to a mismatch in proper sizing. From my limited exposure to different machine tools, 20 DP 14.5 PA seems somewhat common for older machine tools. That size will produce some rather large gears if space is a concern. I'll let someone else chime in if I'm wrong about any of the above info.
If you want a crash course on sizing I made this video not too long ago:
 
That is a great video. Followed to the letter you can't go wrong.

"Billy G"
 
Nice video. I learned.
So I'd need two gear cutters if I wanted to cut two different sized gears, depending on their size.

I have some pondering to do. I need to make a bevel gear to turn 90 degrees for a knee feed motor.

I have some thinking to do...
And I need a proper machinists handbook. My wife got me a smaller book last year but it's the wrong one. It's industrial and has nothing to do with gears.
 
Bevel gears...something on my need to learn list, too.:eagerness:
I believe youtuber, Myfordboy has a video of cutting bevel gears.

Machinery's Handbook is definitely a good thing to have. Mine is quite old and has everything I need. Don't feel like you have to buy the newest one, that's my .02 cents of advice.
 
This is a good book:
Gears and Gear Cutting
by Ivan Law
ISBN 978-185242-911-2
It is written for home shop machinists. New price starts under $10 if you shop around, used even cheaper.
Edit: See post #8. The book is available here on this site!
 
Last edited:
Nice video. I learned.
So I'd need two gear cutters if I wanted to cut two different sized gears, depending on their size.

I have some pondering to do. I need to make a bevel gear to turn 90 degrees for a knee feed motor.

I have some thinking to do...
And I need a proper machinists handbook. My wife got me a smaller book last year but it's the wrong one. It's industrial and has nothing to do with gears.
Bevel gears are not easy to cut, it takes a special cutter, made for bevel gears and not commonly available, and also it takes three cuts at minimum for each tooth; the cutter makes the small (inner) end of the tooth space, then the cut is offset and the tooth rolled and another cut taken on each side of the tooth space to size the outer (big) end of the tooth space. I have only done this once, many years ago to make differential pinions for a 1901 Toledo steam car. If you need bevel gears, best to buy them as stock gears.
There are 8 gear cutters in a set for each diametral pitch in order to cut the full range of teeth numbers, that is from 12 teeth to a rack tooth; that cutter cuts 134 to rack, so if it is not intended to cut that large a number of teeth, it might be dispensed with, but having the whole set is a good thing.
 
Bevel gears. Nice project, but don't forget beautiful, strong pairs of gears are found at the front and back of shaft drive motorcycles. The front pair can be one to one, the back obviously a reduction gear set.

The fronts are found on any bike with an across the frame crankshaft, so you won't be robbing bits of a BMW or an even lovelier Moto Guzzi!
 
Back
Top