- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
- Messages
- 323
I'm about to put in a 1/2hp 3ph Baldor motor on my 7x12 mini lathe, and I fully expect the plastic spur gears in the headstock to break even at that relatively low power. I might still have to buy the metal gear set eventually if this ends up not lasting, but I decided to 3d print my own set of gears out of nylon. I designed them with a herringbone tooth geometry to make it quieter and stronger than spur gears.
Initially I was going to just make helical gears, but I didn't want any axial thrust messing with the shift lever position. And because herringbone gears don't slide axially, I had to keep them all stationary and make a selector collar like in a car's manual gearbox.
I stuck them in the lathe, ran it for a bit, and made a few test passes on some steel. So far I'm calling it a success in that they didn't immediately explode on startup and they're definitely quieter than the spur gears. I included a recording of each set of gears.
Hopefully they work well with the more powerful motor, but time will tell. If worse comes to worst, I'll just get the metal spur gears and deal with the extra noise. Honestly the change gears are far more noisy than the headstock anyway lol. I might just have to print them all with herringbone teeth too....
Initially I was going to just make helical gears, but I didn't want any axial thrust messing with the shift lever position. And because herringbone gears don't slide axially, I had to keep them all stationary and make a selector collar like in a car's manual gearbox.
I stuck them in the lathe, ran it for a bit, and made a few test passes on some steel. So far I'm calling it a success in that they didn't immediately explode on startup and they're definitely quieter than the spur gears. I included a recording of each set of gears.
Hopefully they work well with the more powerful motor, but time will tell. If worse comes to worst, I'll just get the metal spur gears and deal with the extra noise. Honestly the change gears are far more noisy than the headstock anyway lol. I might just have to print them all with herringbone teeth too....