Cut any gear with just a slitting saw

This is about the simplest way to make an accurate gear with the minimum of equipment, just a milling machine and a rotary table, no special attachments, no hobs or special cutters. And best of all you can use this method for any gear, even obscure sizes you can't get cutters for.
You can download the spreadsheet for free from my Patreon page (no Patreon account or donation required): / 61153468

[@abcdfgh4321]

This video taught me two things: first that I really like the gear math and this method of approximating a complex shape. Second, that gear cutters are so so cheap in comparison to making 200 cuts per gear

[@LarryButler-kp3se]

Charleston Naval Shipyard had a precision gear machine that was programmed by 4 gears in the machine. 4 equations had to be satisfied to pick the 4 programming gears. I wrote a BASIC program to test every possible combination to solve the problems. I only had a Radio Shack Model 3 to run the program. It took 2 weeks to complete. 24/7. Each time it came up with a solution, it stored the data on its floppy disk and printed it out on one line of the printer. After completion, the results were sorted and printed out to create 7 volumes to use on the machine. Tests showed my effort gave results making custom gears much easier with no math. That was in 1975.

[@williamstyers4264]

I am a retired master machinist. I worked many years in shops that made gears for textiles as well as printing equipment. I was curious when I saw this video about how you were going to create the involute profile of the gear tooth but was pleasantly surprised at how you did it. Very impressive.

[@DavidG2P]

I will not even get NEAR to do ANY of this ever in my life, yet I watched the entire video. Awesome work, and what a beauty of a perfect gear you have made! ⚙️👍

[@neilbanks6845]

I was a gear manufacturer and designer many years ago. I was impressed with your gear knowledge and lovely to see your ingenuity in action. I don't think the quality would come anywhere near to that of a gear produced by specialist machines such as hobbers, planers and shapers and if you compare your time spent with subcontracting to a specialist I would sub out. However, that would take the fun and job satisfaction away. Enjoyed the video and the nostalgic trip.

[@hilariodecastro1755]

I'm a gear making machinist almost 45 years it's amazing

[@joshmnky]

Whoa whoa whoa, a slitting blade, milling machine, and indexing head I can handle, but you didn't mention a Sharpie up front. You think we're all made of money or inherited fancy Sharpie markers?

[@WizardVespian]

As an engineer, I appreciate the derivations. It’s useful to see how you think through these calculations.

[@benmiller5015]

It was at

[@HenryParkes-kp1yc]

Well, after 50 years in machine shop engineering - and I operate my own jobbing shop with gear cutting capabilities - I must say how much I enjoyed your video! Very well presented and educational!

[@USA-freedom]

As a job shop machinist of 20 some years and a industrial maintenance mechanic who was the go to machinist at that plant for nearly 17 years I was quite impressed with this video. This is the type of project you might be given in a school shop for the student(s) to learn machine practice and theory. Although not practical in the real world the experience the math the adaptation of machine tools and the hands on machining would be priceless. Let me add you could have save yourself a few radius corner cuts by using an endmill with rounded corners. They can be shaped quite easily by hand to the end mill using a grinding wheel. One cut centered and done.

[@IrenESorius]

Impressive, informative and entertaining.

[@rallymax2]

My brain lit up when you showed that a slitting saw is the same as a hob edge. It makes so much sense now!

[@dumbo800]

I get paid to hob, shape, and single-pass gears. I'm impressed far beyond my initial expectations for this video.

[@bobengelhardt856]

What an excellent video!! Not only that the content is interesting and most useful, but the presentation is very professional. All aspects - camera, lighting, sound, graphics (!) and especially the editing! The narration stands apart from all the others - as informative as it needs to be without dragging it out. Not off-the-cuff as most are, but scripted and as well spoken as a professional actor. The amount of time that went into this must be staggering.

[@ppa4345]

I won’t ever cut a gear, I don’t need to, but the beauty of this video gave me a lot of personal satisfaction, what an extraordinary expresión of human creativity and mental order. Congratulations !!!

[@KW-ei3pi]

I've already commented on this video when I watched it months ago, but I just watched it again and I just had to thank you again for sharing your knowledge and skill, not just as a machinist, but also as a videographer. Just watching the videos is very entertaining, and enjoyable. I might make a gear or two in my hobby machine shop someday, but I learn so much from your videos about machining in general. The math is over my head, but with the spreadsheet, I might just pull it off. Thank you .... again, SO MUCH !!!

[@victoryfirst2878]

I used the same method of cutting gears twenty five years ago. An old timer machinist showed me this very method. Works well but not to fast to cut.

[@WireWeHere]

Every once in a while there's a video with valuable educational knowledge. You gotta love the value available using trigonometry to better use and understand the trades.