How to Make Custom Gears for Beginners

[@C3DPropShop]

As a self-taught "Pretengineer," I'm often making it up as I go. It is pivotal that I find and continually consume GOOD information, and I must say that you, Sir, are an absolute gem and a fantastic teacher to boot. I owe you, Destin, StuffMadeHere, ThisOldTony, MakersMuse, PunishedProps, and Blondihacks for a large portion of my "skills" and inspirations. Thank you for everything you do, Jeremy. 💜

[@lady_draguliana784]

Might I also suggest Ivan Miranda, Zack Freedman, and Uri Tuchman! Uri Tuchman JUST did a vid making gears with Bird-Shaped Teeth to show it's possible, and how it's done! 😁

[@C3DPropShop]

@lady_draguliana784 Yes, I watch all of them! Ivan's tank and clock are super impressive 👏 Freedman is a madman, and I love him for it.

[@lady_draguliana784]

Ooh! also Not An Engineer, rctestflight, and Tech Ingredients!

[@C3DPropShop]

@lady_draguliana784 you got me on the last two. Going to check them out now!

[@matt_1969ChevyC1o]

Drawing gears can intimidate even an experienced hobbiest. This was like going back to school. Great video!

[@bheckel1]

You've heard the adage "Is the coffee cup half full or half empty?" An engineer looks at the cup and says "That cup is twice as big as it needs to be."

[@stephenmcdonald3781]

Which is perfect on many cases. Plan for double the stress required. For instance, a cheap 1KW power supply taxed at 500W will outlast an expensive 500W supply taxed at full capacity.

[@bheckel1]

@@stephenmcdonald3781 I build arial equipment on trucks. The designers put the accessories on the print like they go together like Legos.

[@jamesnurgle6368]

​@@bheckel1there was a long moment where I wondered why you'd put wings on a truck.

[@Hellhound604]

Ooofffffff, that reminds me sooo much of a class I had to take in 2nd year engineering at university (1980) long before CAD… had to design those gears with a compass and graph-paper… vaguely I remember some fellow-students had some plastic-templates that they used, but us poor students without money couldn’t afford it, so, compass and graph-paper was it for us… got a total fear of gears and gear-boxes back then….thank god we have CAD-tools nowadays.

[@randxalthor]

Thank you for making this! Designing and fabricating gears is a black art. So much of it is tribal knowledge dispersed across dozens of industries and thousands of institutions.

[@neoncyber2001]

Your videos are always great! Always have great, useful information!

[@andrewn7365]

This series is amazing and extremely informative! Thank you for these videos and as always I look forward to your next one

[@chrisrobinson2172]

Awesome job, Jeremy! Fantastic work! I can't wait to see the next installment for this series.

[@TheAfricanGarage]

Thank you so much Jeremy. This resource is absolutely invaluable. You're a blessing!

[@wantsomething3319]

You're amazing. Think about it though. It's even more amazing how the people in the 1800's designed locomotives, and automobile parts later, without access to CAD tools. It's even more mind boggling than this video, how they could do so much with so little. Jayman...

[@Jeremy_Fielding]

NASA went to space without CAD. Bombers, fighter jets, and aircraft carriers all created around WW2 (1940's) before CAD or calculators. The SR71 (supersonic jet) was created before CAD. The level of technology all done before computers and electrical parts that automate processes and decisions is truly astonishing.

[@wantsomething3319]

@@Jeremy_Fielding Exactly what I am saying. You're still amazing in what you can do.

[@essobregor9775]

Interesting video with info I will probably use at some point in my 3D printing future. Thank you.

[@sleepib]

FreeCAD has a pretty good gear workbench.

Shout out to Mattias Wandel's gear template generator. There's a free online version or you can support him by buying the $26 Windows program that supports more complex gears.

[@PatrickKQ4HBD]

I bought his BigPrint program. Like Jeremy, he's a treasured man.

[@mudnducs]

Outstanding Jeremy!

[@321apocalyps]

Hi Jeremy, the video was great. Just curious if you could recommend a good service for ordering gears in bulk?

[@mpetersen6]

Thankfully today there are a number of websites that will figure out some of this stuff for you. When l was having to cut gears for repair parts helical gears were a pain. Helicals require special gear ratios to cut on gear hobbers. Both for the indexing and feed. Depending on helix direction and if the hob is a RH or LH lead the cutter is either advancing or retarding in relation to the work.

[@vandhanmurali]

Hi Jeremy, greetings from India. ❤. Very interesting content bro. Keep it up! 💯💯

[@techybrown8501]

best explanation as always , thank you

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

LOTS OF projects use beaded ball chain as it can change directions. Could you show how to design a driver pulley using SolidWorks?

[@perrinromney4555]

Speaking of that CNC table saw, have you ever considered selling plans for that? That project is rent free in my mind all the time.

[@dekutree64]

For Blender there's a good plugin called PrecisionGears. The free version only generates basic spur gears, but that's all I need. If I want helical twist I just do it by extruding and rotating repeatedly.

[@Javierm0n0]

That's what i use too! I have a project that needed a gear train and i thought it would be a great idea to do my first one as a planetary set with herring bone teeth. I'm still working on it but the only thing holding me back is this being my first ever project like this 😅. Blender's mad useful for those of us with no budget.

[@mpetersen6]

Just remember for the same number of teeth a helical gear is larger than the spur gear. For DP gears Number of teeth + 2/DP. A 40 tooth 10 DP is 4.2". A helical is 40/10 x Cosine of the Helix Angle + 2/DP.

[@prawnstar9213]

Have you ever looked at the first ever pocket watches called fusse? Verge fusse. They were made in France and to make one a person sat with a “telescoping lens” and cut every gear from scratch and filed down every tooth shaving down mental nanometer by nanometer themselves until it fit with what they wanted it to fit.. in a lifetime a watchmaker could only finish about 10 watches. Crazy stuff.

[@Emurga]

can't wait for the next video ;) if you had any doubt, I'm hooked ;)

[@dreday9600]

This is really cool stuff!! My Pops gave me a old school electrical meat grinder that I want to bring back to life... No sure where to start but can research/learn! Any suggestions?

[@adams13f]

Great videos can't wait for the next one I've been taking apart everything!!!!!!

[@makerofthingsunique]

Great video, was great to see you at maker central, I was a bit in awe , sorry I called you that engineer guy, I did know your name lol

[@Jeremy_Fielding]

I don’t expect people to know who I am and especially not my name! Engineer guy sounds pretty good to me:)

[@manitobaman5588]

Jeremy Check out the Zero-Max mechanical, variable speed unit. While not a gear unit I would love to see you build one.

[@DoritoFontane]

This is genius there’s no limit as to what you can build. Curious about your background not to be nosey but it’s quite inspiring. Did you study or are you a Mechanical engineer ?

[@jaffasoft8976]

That's so cool, i learned things i didn't even know existed. I'd like to build a gear oil pump which can be slow ltrs per minute but high psi for moving viscous waste vegetable oil through to a centrifuge at about 90-100 psi. I've got a design id like to do similar of that is a small gear oil pump thats proven really reliable but make it much bigger same proportions, not really sure how to go about it all. Would the program say if it will work or have to be tested in real life if it works good?

[@RixtronixLAB]

Creative video, thank you :)

[@PointerGo]

Hi Jeremy, great video. I have been reading up on spur gears and I have a question. Is the pressure angle computed or chosen?

[@jameslabs1]

A video I will marinate in. Thanks

[@SystemsMedicine]

Lovely.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

Maybe you could talk about the engineering the tooth shape of the gears for both gear mesh and sprocket to chain.

[@Jeremy_Fielding]

That would truly be digging into the nerdy details. LOL Generally, IMO if someone has the need to do that they likely also have the background knowledge telling them why they would want to do that. I am not sure this would be helpful to enough people to make it. But it is interesting I agree.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

@@Jeremy_Fielding Recently, I was designing a chain driven system with sprockets, and after years realized the why the arc of the teeth is why it is. Also, I found a great animation of involute gearing and had a eureka moment about the 'line of action', being tangent to the addendum and the dedendum circles. Tec-Science has a great page on involute gears and how an 'involute' can be generated with a string. Maybe too nerdy for here but helped me. Even my non-engineer wife loves your vids 🙂

[@lady_draguliana784]

You could make your own Antikythera Mechanism as a demo project!

[@johnrobinson4445]

4 minutes in. Like 18. Nice to see this one.

[@skelingtonrick]

when designing compact and very low profile gears or mechanisms, what rules of thumb would you use to determine materials minimum useful thickness, I know the more expensive Cad software have stress simulations and such, but that's beyond me.

[@spencerhowman4733]

Have you ever looked into stan myers water engine?

[@N1ghtR1der666]

could you make a planetary gear set with either double helical or single helical gears? and would that provide some benefit?

[@FlesHBoX]

My main question on the maker version of solidworks.... Can it math better than fusion? Because fusion just falls apart more and more with every curve you use. Also, next time you should turn off the ceiling fan, was super distracting, lol.

[@Engineer682]

Okay but does anyone know what the effect is for changing the pressure angle? I'm a studying grad MechE and I don't even know what it is. Great video by the way!

[@Jeremy_Fielding]

It’s pretty easy to find online. A bit much to tease out here

[@michaelg4931]

As a general rule, a higher pressure angle increases the strength of the teeth, to a point, at the expense of increased noise. If I recall correctly, it is the angle formed by two lines. One is a line drawn radially from the center of the gear through the center of the tip of the tooth. The other is a line radially tangent to the tooth surface at the point it would contact a corresponding meshed gear tooth. The two cross if extended and the angle formed is the pressure angle.

[@bdot02]

$38 is a lot cheaper than the typical 10k+ for Solidworks. It's as though they're finally realizing that they need to compete with the other CAD tools on the market. I've lost all respect for SW due to their lack of innovation over the years but maybe this means they're starting to move in the right direction.

[@Todestelzer]

I tried it out around 2 years ago. The maker edition did not come with the same CAM and they broke my assembly’s multiple times with updates and sometimes if you updated you couldn’t log in because your version was now higher than on their servers and I had to wait a day till it worked again… I now pay for Fusion 360. 550€ a year. But still searching for a standalone CAM to be able to switch to Alibre Design.

[@okaytree7711]

When is the new video?? Its a great series btw.

[@Jeremy_Fielding]

About a week I think. Working on it now actually

[@okaytree7711]

@@Jeremy_Fielding yayyy you responded! Thanks for the update, I was confused initially.

[@matthewmalloy354]

Based on the video and your recommendation I am going to assume you are a hobbiest user license through solid works. Back in university I originally learned design in solidworks but after leave by school my education ran out and about the same time solid works did away with the free tinker/ hobby license. In turn even though I thought solidworks was far superior I switched to 360 for my cad/cam needs. I’m not opposed to paying a small fee to use the program, in all honesty it is cheaper than Netflix a year. My question to you and a what limitations does solidworks impose on the maker license that would impact someone who wants it for 3D design and the ability to CAM their project in the same software. What functionality and conveniences will be given up. IE some programs limit project size, travel speed, types of files , ability to save work , amount of components saved in a file ect. Essentially what are the cons of solidworks maker I should be aware of

[@ChiefBridgeFuser]

Thanks again for making this EE less dumb!

[@hippie-io7225]

Can the maker version of Solidworks import a .STP file? My particular workflow imports entire PCB projects into Fusion 360, using .STP files.

[@Jeremy_Fielding]

Yes. When you are on the 3d experience platform you can import stp files and several other file types.

[@hippie-io7225]

@@Jeremy_Fielding Thanks

[@gregspecht3706]

Toolbox is a separate license unfortunately so you need to make sure you have that add on

[@harshit2961]

❤

[@Gabriel-mg6om]

😇

[@theoverallguy6186]

I appreciate the video, but I just can't deal with a subscription for a product. A subscription for a program is just not somthing I will ever do.

[@Jeremy_Fielding]

You are in for a frustrating life my friend LOL. I only say this because 4-5 years ago I felt like you. I said “Why is everyone switching to subscription services. I won’t don’t that” then I realized everyone has switched to subscription services. It is what it is. 😀 Seriously I understand how you feel. But all the good stuff is behind a subscription service now. SolidWorks is one of the few programs I appreciate frequent improvements to. They are the best in my opinion. It’s just part of how they can keep things updated and functional long after you started using it. The alternative is software that eventually stops working because it is not supported anymore

[@kobe824lakers]

link doesn't work

[@matt_1969ChevyC1o]

Which link?

[@kobe824lakers]

@@matt_1969ChevyC1o the link for solidworks. I'm getting a blank page and i've tried of different devices.

[@Jeremy_Fielding]

I just checked it and it works. Maybe you need to clear cookies, or check if you have 3rd party cookies blocked.

[@MrThedennisblack]

It’s working for me as well. Definitely try another browser or device, or separate network. I find that sometimes certain promotional things won’t work for me at home because I’m running PiHole and it sees the redirects as suspicious.

[@amosmoses139]

All you geniuses on KZbin make me feel "stupider and stupider every time I come across you guys content! 😅

[@torowazup1]

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😎

[@Thorgon-Cross]

Think title is a bit off as this is about designing gears not making them. Making is the physical act of creating something.

[@KBLIZZ333]

It'd be cool of you removed all them plastic bins behind you and painted the light blue face the same color blue as everything else.

[@shambles9]

inches? c'mon man 👎

[@arnabbiswas3973]

so GT40 cluch gear on hande up down🌵 peddle muli ankit peddle break clutch engine on🌵🌵 fear

[@iceman71625]

Hello Mr. J. Ty for your video great content and video as this will help me with my hearing for Rc vehicles I make and buy and mod myself .... Ty again from the Blo- Bills 🏈 country 🦬🔥💪

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

what's it got to do with hearing?