Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Machining a Gear!

Adam embarks on a build he's long wanted to make: a supersized flywheel powered toy car that can move with tremendous energy. The first step: machining a scaled-up version of one of the gears in the toy's gear train. Machining a working gear with a specific number of teeth and gear pitch is something Adam has never done before, so it's going to be a fun machining exercise!
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#adamsavage #onedaybuilds #machining

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[@brandonyoung-kemkes1128]

Adam should try doing cuts on the lathe no more than 25 thousandths at a time to prevent chatter, and potentially damaging his equipment, particularly the cutting edge of the bit.

[@brandonyoung-kemkes1128]

Those nice long curly offcuts is what you want to see when you start seeing little chips check your feeds and speeds.

[@ShrimplyPibblesJr]

When the zombie apocalypse comes, I’m heading for Adam’s

[@jasonburns1407]

As a machinist the noise when cutting gears is exactly that 😂😂

[@lukeamato2348]

I've been building my own design little 2 cylinder engine and had to make gears a few months back , went through this whole process. It took a bit but i now have a set of gears lol. I tried with a slittingbsaw first but ended up getting a set of involute cutters. Wasnt that bad

[@Clickspring]

Beautiful work mate, muuuuuch prettier than my first pinion! Look forward to watching this build :)

[@zarster]

If it was me making that lil pretty gear and getting that comment on it afterwards I'ld get all gitty inside, I have a feeling same goes for Mr. Savage. Thank you both for your outstanding work and passion sharing across platforms

[@ChrisEllorris]

I just got secondhand glee from seeing this comment! I absolutely know Adam is going to have it tenfold. Your work is beyond exceptional!

[@kollchris91]

honestly hearing adam mention he watches click spring made me smile and relize just how down to earth adam is ! id love to see clickspring visit adam and see them swapping tips and tricks with eachother

[@TommyJobson]

Much better than my first attempt as well Chris!

[@stevefranks9873]

This is high praise coming from Clickspring!

[@Frequincy100]

The one day builds where Adam does something for the first time are the best one day builds imho

[@tAbes314]

Hey Adam, I'm a phd student whose primary research area is on gear geometry and applications. I just wanted to say it was cool watching you learn a bit about the subject and make a couple of spur gears in this video!

[@markireson9537]

'I dog-eared the page. I've been here before.' Is an almost cinematicly beautiful point of discovery. There were people here before.... and it was us. They've left us a message. This'll make me smile for hours.

[@steveclarke6257]

Adam, thank you for showing people the skill needed to be an engineering machinist; in today's modern world of CinC tools, seeing someone having to work the way my grandfather, father and brother learnt to do their profession is satisfyingly interesting.

[@dumbo800]

Much of the equipment used in small production/job shops is still manually operated. In my shop we have only 2 CNC gearcutters: a gasher and a hobber. Everything else uses an annoying number of gears (because of that, the CNCs are most useful for prime numbers of teeth over 100 teeth).

[@boots0518]

😅

[@Dr3450]

I went through this exercise digitally, had a 3d printer project that had gears, and I'm the type of person who likes to understand the why and how, so i googled the machinists handbook, walked through the process of manually drawing the gears by hand, using all the complex geometry with all the overlapping and intercecting circles and tangents in CAD. It took me a couple days to truly understand what i was doing and be able to re create the process from memory instead of reading step by step. Now i just use the gear creator tool and it does it for me, but i understand what is going on!

[@thepagan5432]

My working life was spent as an engineer. Working on large industrial gearboxes and gears manufactured for high end engine manufacturers in the UK, Europe and North and South America. I traveled all around solving problems with customers. Power train engineers do have their own "speak", which to most is a foreign language. I loved my job.

[@JUSTinsane_W]

The time lapse when cutting the teeth was way more satisfying when watching the drill bits spinning from vibration in the background

[@NUTACE]

Nice looking job! Looking forward to seeing the complete result. Small Tip! Instead of cutting oil (or nothing at all), you can use petroleum. It gives Bronze, Brass and Aluminium a smoother surface and saves the cutting edge of your tools.

[@SuperMike2507]

It's also a huge potential fire hazard ;)

[@NUTACE]

@mike dierickx Nope. Been using that for many years when I was still working in the machineshops. We have never witnessed any fires using that and didn't take special precautions.

[@tommytschantz765]

A tip for you. when putting the tailstock center into the part, make it a point to have your handwheel handle over the back of the center. That way gravity will keep it snug, and it won't loosen up.

[@The.Pickle]

It would be amazing if you and Clickspring did a project together.

[@spektrum33]

Always a pleasure to watch Adam work 🥹

[@Xtafa]

The section when you start cutting the teeth and it's sped up.. reminds me of the Bicentennial Man intro, love it.

[@Steve.Garrison]

Hey Adam, great job making your first gears! I don't have a metal lathe or milling machine but I make wooden gears with my table saw. I use AGMA formulas and get a true involute tooth profile that runs very smooth. I have also made helical and elliptical gears too. Cheers!

[@zarster]

No less than 13 years ago even, great work! love those wooden blinds with wooden gears.

[@Steve.Garrison]

@@zarster Thank you!

[@unclepunch761]

I'm proud of you Adam. Great work.

[@gregahitchcock1982]

All I want for Christmas is to see every single last detail, mistake, correction, paint, and test drive of this project!

[@francesgaywood4902]

Oh my got found you again loved watching you years ago you are amazing and I’m not clever as you far from it but I love the way you give me a chance to understand and so enjoyable love yr cave I wish you so much success and love you Adam love little Fran 🇬🇧 xxx happy 2023 xx

[@chadmartens7226]

Adam running that stone over the mill triggered all my ASMR…. Lit up like a Christmas tree…

[@justincarawan-carawanco.pu1639]

26:31 Interesting collection of sounds.

[@1993Nautilus]

Growing up I had a toy car that you revved up by rolling it across the ground and it made this groaning rumbling sound and I loved it but never understood how it worked. I just watched Adam roll that car across the table and heard that sound again and nearly 20 years later just received a profound understanding of how it actually worked.

[@ProfSimonHolland]

congratulations 🎉

[@raffitz]

"To the lathe, Boy Wonder" with the gear transition made me big laugh.

[@ВладимирИшков-г6б]

Amazing video, Adam! Thanks!

[@AkaraTheLost]

22:07 One of my favorite things about making is when you can make the tools you need as well as whatever project. 3D printing parts for your 3d printer, forging new tools for your forge etc.

[@sincladp]

Tramming in different equipment on your mill was cool, a nice introduction for those of us who know nothing. A intro to what the basics are with your since 2020 advanced knowledge of machining would make a great “tool tip” or similar video I believe

[@emory442]

Mills and lathes are magical. I'd love to have a shop big enough to have both

[@ratthew42]

Got a good laugh out of him moving the jig from the mill over to a table

[@carpenterstacey]

What i love Adam is that we can see your brain working in real time 😀

[@millerbeer01]

Your enthusiasm always makes me happy. Putting your hand near the spinning, not so much. Stop that mister!

[@Personal-jr9rn]

28:50 that part immediately reminded me of tony stark he sounds like him; I could till because I've been rewatching those movies

[@russellanderson3901]

Adapm, don"t know if others already mentioned it, but setting up your vise offset to one side or the other allows for other jobs to be setup on the other side without having to remove the vise. Also negates the tendency most mills have to wear out in the middle area of the table.

[@RBETV]

It's Friday, nailed it.

[@sharkid72]

I look forward to the flywheel car build XD

[@steveblake3141]

Used to work in a shop that machined large bronze bearing parts. Bronze swarf looks pretty, but I was warned that if you get a splinter of it in you, it will go septic really fast. Never heard this anywhere else so interested if this was just a myth (see what I did there?!) or if others have heard of this. Did search for this, but found nothing on google.

[@mrvector257]

Ah yes Swarf. Full name Swarfolomew! Half man, half swog. Seasoned traveler of the stars and loyal of Prince Lone Starr. Truly a god amongst machining chips anywhere in the universe!

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Got to the end, saw the gear, how it works, what it looks like and had no idea how I’d gotten there and completely forgot why he was making it. ;-)

[@twkolejofil]

That reminded me my master thesis about the cog railways... Anyway, I think that gears and screw threads are much easier in metric part of the world 😜

[@theafro]

Gear cutting is awesome, it's kinda like the mill's equivalent to thread cutting in a lathe. Usually, when using mixed metals for gears, the pinion is harder and the larger wheel softer, but I can't deny I'd do exactly the same thing If I had a nice chunk of bronze calling to me from the drops pile! Can't wait to see where this leads, those gears would take the power of a MUCH bigger flywheel! And living in a notoriously hilly city, with potential energy literally everywhere, this may be a viable form of personal transport!

[@curtisbeaumont1840]

Also, the pinion is wider than the driven gear, because each tooth will contact another tooth (more tooth to tooth contact events) than the teeth on the driven gear. If the 48T driven is 1" wide, cut the pinion 1.25" wide.

[@fishfish7985]

Adding learning to use a lathe back to my list of skills , I have used one, twice

[@donevans1884]

brilliant video Adam your a star mate .

[@scottcates]

That bronze will lap right into the other gears. There may be a little extra lash as the gears seat and flatten out the peaks from cutting though. Maybe slick them up with a little sanding block or just send it, as is ;)

[@heliank6905]

Now I'm thinking of a human sized petal powered flywheel toy car.

[@NickUncommon]

Seeing those bronce curls, I think, they shoiuld be put into a box, sent to NICK ZAMETTI, so he can put them into resin and make car cubes of them or something else to be put into the car, to recycle the cuttings.

[@alxklgn364]

"Not blood... I think" cudos to the editor 😁

[@welkinator]

Great ham-bone man!

[@Razehell42]

I just got, well getting for Christmas a semi universal dividing head.

[@madscrapmechanic4211]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does Belly Drums.

[@ramrod126]

The difference is Chris is cutting gears the size of a pea. LOL.

[@Zeno_Evil]

You should do a video on how they make herringbone gears.

[@robin7433]

When you were talking ab gear tooth engagement, I was thinking "a herringbone gear would be the best for that" but then I guess it would be nontrivial to machine...

[@matteolaborg]

The Hotsy Totsy Club! You are a man of the people! (Also technically it's in Albany, CA)

[@DrSnap23]

"So Adam, ca you explain to the viewers what you do exactly in the shop ?" Adam : 26:30

[@robertpearson8798]

Just a friendly suggestion, make some keys for your vise to save tramming time between setups.

[@JoeBieniecki]

Nice one

[@makegrowlabrepeat]

Machinist here, don't stone any surfaces on you machines unless you 100 percent have to. I you do that every time your table will not be flat for long

[@Soundguydan]

Is there a word for the fear of lathes? I think I have that. Terrifying machines.

[@bellianamicrofarm9174]

Curious about how you find anything that workshop.... It looks really full.

[@BuggsK100RS]

I have got to say I would love to watch a Collaboration between Adam and Abome or Keith Fenner, would be very cool to watch Adam learning from some one who daily drives Machining equipment. Edited as I carnt spell Keith (face palm )

[@ramdynebix]

Or uncle Keith

[@wilcojuffer5940]

Nice video but I do not understand why the Rotery table have to mount on the 1-2-3 block, it is so easy mount the rotery table direckt on the mill table and the tailstock the same center high

[@bullzeyedrone7030]

How come you are not using oil when cutting and machining? I worked at a machine shop and they would use oil to keep the tools cool and get a cleaner cut.

[@RagingMonkee]

Adam, I love the shirt you are wearing in this video but I can't find it on your store. Where can I get one?

[@ck131000]

Why does the mill sound like that when he moves the bed? I'm new to machining started working in an engineering place in February so I'm just wondering as it's usually smooth for me unless I leave the power feed on and try to move it manually as well

[@WokeUpScreaming]

What happened to that project with that enormous terrifying flywheel?

[@sonnyc3826]

that gear looks almost exactly like an ibselete geat for a craftsman snowblower i bought...i thought of doing this myself but i really have no idea how to make my own gears but it would be super useful to alot of people with sucha model becasue it isnt made anymore and this probably goes for alot of gears for machines..i went to a gear makign place and they wanted to charge me like 200-300 bucks for one gear..its such a shame that id have to throw out a whole machine over one stupid gear..

[@Boomheyyou]

Adam you’re wearing on Apple Watch where is your Omega naughty?

[@Werd2jaH]

Hehe he said “wedgie-poos” lol

[@martinTintin476]

Adam Spaghete´s

[@brentonpaterson7047]

Highly recommend clickspring yt channel.

[@equallyeasilyfuqyou]

I never had one of those. :(

[@spammehere67601]

Wedgiepoo. Technology terminology for the win!

[@briancox2721]

Some tips to make your next experience better: 1) it's called a tail stock on the lathe, it's called a footstock on the mill. This isn't about gatekeeping, knowing the proper terms makes finding spare parts easier 2) let the stock cool between your last roughing cut and the finish cut. Measure and adjust the DRO accordingly. Makes hitting the number easier. 3) use a four jaw independent chuck on your dividing head to dial in the part to tenths on the mill. 4) you don't have to go full depth in one pass on the gear cutter. Take two or three passes to reduce chatter, improve finish, and prolong cutter life. 5) look up the surface speed for the material you are cutting and the chip load per tooth for the cutter. Use those to calculate RPM and then feed rate. This also improves dimensional accurate, surface finish, and cutter life. And no hammering of death noises when cutting.

[@kjohn5224]

yeah the one pass cutting was a bit much for me

[@austinpeterson4898]

Yep, the chattering really hurt to watch and listen to.

[@Koptokaf]

I would add milling conventionally instead of climbing the cut. Deflection in the arbor contributed to the unpleasentness, and could have been mitigated by milling conventionally. Also it can lead to a bad crash. 'specially with slitting saws.

[@4d4m22]

I'm not a machinist or engineer but even I cringed when he was cutting the gear, you could see the tool wobble and hear the chatter.

[@briggsbughouses6291]

@@4d4m22 Just at the point the music came in...

[@JasonOlshefsky]

I always thought it would be neat to have "human-powered drag races" where people would make vehicles with flywheels or springs or super-capacitors/generators. Maybe 30 seconds to add energy from zero, and classes based on mechanical or electrical.

[@jessevennard2640]

I feel like I’ve seen something similar

[@1pcfred]

What's neat is nitro methane drag races. A word to the wise if you're watching in person bring ear plugs. It is loud!

[@JanTuts]

Nice! I imagine one team using a couple of cyclists pedalling a hard as possible, meanwhile another team has a strongman lifting as many weight blocks on top of a platform, etc.

[@ShrimplyPibblesJr]

Would make a good Little Rascals movie

[@bmxscape]

@@JanTuts that sounds awesome

[@DareDevilDave75]

Don’t leave us waiting too long! We want to see the whole build!

[@chuckkincaid986]

I could watch Adam build anything and be entertained

[@DB-rg2dk]

Just like we can watch anything Ryan Reynolds makes, lol

[@jamesjolly6536]

so true. He is a great entertainer and has the passion for bringing the joy of making to the masses

[@lambdaman3228]

@@DB-rg2dk "we"? Speak for yourself.

[@landonkryger]

Any chance you could do an interview or podcast with Clickspring? I'd love to hear the two of you talk about machining and precision.

[@leovandijk8852]

Expert gear engineer here, love your explanation of pressure angle etc. It is as complex as you explain actually. You should look into gear hobbing, which actually mills different teeth shapes (tooth counts) on gears, using the same tool. Nice video 👌

[@dumbo800]

A little Fellows #7 shaper would probably be more reasonable for a shop his size. Hobbers have a big footprint.

[@MrBcsack]

55 years ago we used to calculate all the tooth / root radii manually using logs - brain still hurts !

[@ToofKilla]

Wait till he sees the math for a helix or a bevel

[@alwayscensored6871]

Got a 0.5 hob years ago but don't have the machine to use it. Been on my maker list for two decades. Time to revisit this as I reach retirement.

[@MrBcsack]

@@ToofKilla Been there, got the T shirt, done the maths 😁

[@mikestone9111]

A long-term design point: using brass or bronze against iron/steel is a good choice because it prevents surface galling. The cost is that most of the wear happens on the gear made of the softer material. Typical practice is to spread that wear out across as many teeth as possible, so we usually make pinions of steel and use brass/bronze/plastic for the larger wheels. For the project you're doing now, it hardly matters. You might see the effects of wear on the brass gears if you use the toy every day for the next ten years. The idea becomes more important if you make gear trains that run continuously, or carry a lot of force, and is one of those bits of knowledge you pick up as you spend time working with gears.

[@simonhoney2050]

Y'know this description of gears at the start.. like you're right I don't need to know it, I'm immediately forgetting it, but the depth of human understanding and capability about any given subject always blows my mind. How far and how perfectly a person can understand something to keep making it better. Beautiful.

[@cemx86]

At 7:28 Adam mentions cutting gears and watching the ClickSpring KZbin channel. Great and beautiful stuff there. Another very good machinist's channel is Keith Rucker's Vintage Machinery channel. He is a very good teacher.

[@Anonymous-rh9hk]

Those are great recommendations. I'd like to add Blondihacks to the list, makes machining look much less of a black art and more approachable by mortals.

[@SinisterMD]

Adam, this is fantastic and always wonderful to watch someone machine something complex like this. If you're curious about a full size "flywheel" car you might be interested in what Porsche (and to some extent Williams F1) did with a mounted flywheel. It was mag-lev and used magnetic induction to spin so as to reduce friction loss. Very cool tech on what it a very old idea.

[@noahpettibon]

Thanks for that little research mission!

[@Dialogue_SC]

the editors need a raise! 25:37 "not blood" 25:41 "i think" you guys crack me up!

[@biocow9070]

I saw that too. LOL!

[@feelthepayne88]

This Old Tony has some excellent videos explaining gear cutting and gears in general as well.

[@rong1924]

Gears! But were afraid to ask.

[@quietrioter]

This Old Tony has a great video explaining how to make gears from scratch

[@sincladp]

I love the introduction of education here. I know nothing of this type of machining or even mathematics, but I love to learn. Keep those things coming Adam, even if your only have marginalized knowledge of them, because any experience helps people with none.

[@Bad_Wolf_Media]

11:48 that was a pretty fantastic non-copyright-infringing flying mammalian superhero TV show transition!

[@poozizzle]

I love Clickspring videos too and he makes it all look so easy!

[@CarboniteDreamer]

i love when he pulls out some of the odd pieces of mythbuster stuff.

[@fakjbf3129]

I love the little bit of text at 25:38 saying “not blood”

[@19TheChaosWarrior79]

I had to rewind and rewatch several times as I thought I was seeing things

[@mikeymad]

I think

[@ToTheGAMES]

I love the color of bronze and I love the strings it makes while cutting!

[@albertkassenaar7735]

Adam In the streets of OSLO drives a tram whith passengers on a flywheel !

[@KnowArt]

I actually just made a /very/ layman's explanation short about the shape of gear teeth!

[@pesterenan]

Adam being a lathe with chatter for 5 seconds: 26:30 Never change, Adam xD

[@CaribouKH]

Adam goes full on "6 years old" at 8:48 "...I wan't it to go for like a BLOCK!" just cracked me up 🤣 ...man what a world this would be if everyone would hold on to that level of energy in their life.

[@Critters]

@13:15 don't grab the strings with your hands! The tool may disengage/chip and that string could then wrap around the part pretty damn quickly taking your fingers off. Well, maybe not your fingers, but bad practice that if repeated by someone watching and machining something that has long strings (delrin?) could end in tears

[@uncouthj4599]

Dude! Never ever ever touch a swarf snake that's still attached! BADBADBAD ADAM!!! Remember someone on the discord getting in trouble for posting a picture of their degloving from doing what you did there...

[@TheEgg185]

The old man I lived with was a machinist and knew how to make anything, including gears. I asked if a lot of math was required and he said "o fuck yeah". I asked if he used π. He said "You use everything." I was hoping that this video would show the complicated math involved, but it didn't. It's too late to ask the old man or show this video to him because he's dead. 💀 After a long battle with health problems, he was shot dead by police outside my house while I was playing a video game. I'll assume you're watching this on Christmas day because that's when I'm posting this. I sleep on a piece of plywood. Thanks for reading.

[@KingKernel]

Can you try to make a Cigar Box Guitar (gee-tar)? I made one earlier this year, surprisingly it didnt take too long (had the neck already made though) It didnt turn out super great, but for my first cigar box gee-tar i must say, i was pretty proud of myself. It was so satisfying, i just forgot that the world spun around me, time kinda stood still for about 2 - 3 hours I would love to see how you would tackle that job

[@aussiebloke609]

Is this really Adam Savage? The show seems more like Chris from Clickspring...only not going so far as to form the gear teeth by hand with a file. Maybe with a little This Old Tony (anyone remember cutting the Mini Lathe gearset?) thrown in.

[@alexanderdouglas4702]

Hey Adam I work in a machine shop that produces precision medical equipment at scale (sometimes within a single thou). We use a bunch of fancy stuff and measure stuff in really cool ways. While I don’t have the authority to offer you a tour I think you’d really nerd out about what we have going on. Lmk if you want more details and I’ll get you in contact with the people who can offer you a tour.