Making Wooden Bevel Gears with a Radial Arm Saw

The band saw is typically the go-to tool for cutting wooden gears. In this video, I primarily use a radial arm saw (RAS) with jigs to cut bevel gears. This technique makes it easy to cut consistent gear teeth. However, the maximum gear size that can be made is limited by the height the blade can be raised above the RAS table.
My bevel gears were inspired by Matthias Wandel, but made in a different manner. However, I encourage you to check out his wooden gear generator program and the cool things he makes with his wooden gears: woodgears.ca/

[@michaelbradford4444]

Tricky business is putting it lightly! Very impressive Brian Weekley!

[@brianweekley5700]

Thank you. I appreciate the comment.

[@dabluox]

As a machinist I am very impressed. I’ve made bevel gears on a milling machine with a deciding head. Great work. 👍🏻

[@brianweekley5700]

LOL! Thanks.

[@cristianpopescu78]

Amazing beautiful, good work!! You must be a wood master,all guys I know in this field have missing Fingers.

[@brianweekley5700]

LOL! Thanks!

[@bigray2859]

Great video sir! Thank you! I love my ras! It's 55 years old, it cost me $30 five years ago, and it performs beautifully! The new miter saws are pretty cool, but I'll keep my ras and my money.

[@brianweekley5700]

Thank you very much. Yes, the RAS is often an under appreciated saw these days, but it's a go-to tool for me. Check out my other videos--many demonstrate the RAS being used in a variety of different ways. Here's two you might like: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnnHlaV_bqeHfMU kzbin.info/www/bejne/gWG7houCqLJsrJY

[@Bluuplanet]

Bought a 10" RAS this past summer for $20! Took all of the effort of me and the girl running the yard sale to get it into the back of my SUV. Crushed her old Radio Flyer wagon...she gave me that too, which I was able to repair.

[@brianweekley5700]

A RAS is an excellent addition to the shop (if it's a good model and properly aligned). If you haven't seen it, you may find my alignment video useful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4LCeYuJqs1khrc

[@bobbg9041]

that's pretty slick, ok now you remind me of my Dad but he never had a ras he used a 1962 sears table saw and made his own stand for it. I remember going to sears with him and my mom to get it when I was 2. My dad would use scratch up a pad of paper and pencil. Its pretty simple stuff, but like him I have not maters the computer program but he might have he programed computers at one time. He built boats in the basement all the way up until he made one he had to saw in 2 to get out of the basement. he'd built a lot of them before this one. it even sank on its maiden voyage no it didn't hit an iceberg .

[@brianweekley5700]

Nice! I always enjoyed watching my dad make things as a kid. I once made a small sailboat, but that was in the backyard!

[@jamesmartin7559]

Cool jig

[@brianweekley5700]

Thanks!

[@anthonythomas280]

WE COULD USE PEOPLE LIKE YOU IN BRITISH GOVERNMENT , ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.THANK YO TONY T.

[@brianweekley5700]

Thank you--that's nice of you to say. Unfortunately, the government on the other side of the pond needs a lot of help these days too!

[@niebzdury1377]

Excellent! .......... I'm chuckling cuz all I ever see on YT about radial arm saws is that they're only good for _rough_ cross-cutting.

[@brianweekley5700]

Thanks. I use my RAS for everything. Don't believe everything you see on YT!

[@niebzdury1377]

​ Brian Weekley .... I hear ya. I see so much nonsense on YT that I keep wondering why I watch. I used a RAS for 20 years for work & home. I ran, literally, miles of lumber through it & never had a problem. I didn't use it for a while then recently set it up again. Now I see on YT that it shouldn't do any of the things that I've been doing for years. Go figure. But your videos are great and have been helpful. I don't why I missed this one - it just came up recently. Keep up the good work.

[@bobbg9041]

he's only cutting across the wood! far be it from him its at funky angles.

[@talltimberswoodshop7552]

Let me guess...An apple press? Or maybe an semi-automatic chicken feeder? The bag of feed is poured into a metal trash can with spout and these gears are part of the belt delivery conveyor system to the chicken house. Who knew what we could do on the RAS! Well done! Tim

[@brianweekley5700]

Hmm...apple press or chicken feeder. Maybe for future projects. Good guesses, but not quite. Stay tuned!

[@jackhowie6302]

Or maybe they are just a patterns for some sand casting?? We all know you could also use a blast furnace in your shop!

[@brianweekley5700]

That would be fun!

[@petermarsh4993]

Dear Brian, you showed this in sped up mode but how do you release / fix your guide and the rear horizontal spacer board? Thanks.

[@brianweekley5700]

Thanks for the question. Are you referring to the video at 5:10 min? Radial arm saws typically have thumb screws in the back that clamp the back tables and fence tight against the front table. You can see me tighten the two thumb screws after I drop the jig into the fence slot. If I’m not understanding your question, please give me some more info.

[@builditbetter5287]

brian, I have the same model radial saw as you and love it...dust collection is an issue though, I think I may have commented on one of your previous videos with this request, but just in case you didn't see it or maybe it didn't go through, would you mind giving a run down of the dust collection setup you use on you machine?

[@brianweekley5700]

Just copying the same response I gave you last time... :) Thanks for your comment. Dust collection on the RAS is certainly a challenging problem. Sorry to disappoint you, but there's not much to my dust collection system. I have a wooden box attached to the back of the saw that just catches sawdust during cross-cuts. It doesn't work great, but it's better than nothing. For ripping, I simply connect a shop vac hose to the blade guard outlet. If you haven't seen this, here's an intriguing setup for crosscut dust collection: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bX-Tq3upbNiip6M

[@nayanmipun6784]

Please include the equipments details you use for the sculpture

[@shojabaig4944]

hi dear thanks for your videos then teach us.

[@brianweekley5700]

Thank you.

[@Bluuplanet]

Way better than Matias Wandel's attempt at bevel gears! I wonder if cutting the "pressure angle" (actually profiling the involute) might work better with a jig for an abrasive tool rather than a scroll saw.

[@brianweekley5700]

Thanks. This was kind a one off experiment for another project I need to finish some day...

[@bobcook9030]

Not necessarily better....Just more complicated. Both work!

[@bobbg9041]

if you did this it would make more accurate gears by adding a index pin after each cut you drop the index pin to catch the last cut. its closer then eyeballing the lines. Maybe not a bridgeport but pretty close for wood.

[@brianweekley5700]

Considered index pins, but this worked just fine for the few wood gears I needed to make.

[@Nossajornada184]

Show

[@patprop74]

Not to say you didn't do a great job with the jig, the only change I would see, is added a indexing pin at the 45 deg point , so you would just switch from one tooth to the next, it would also act like a lock so you wouldn't have to clamp it down after each cut.

[@brianweekley5700]

Thanks. Actually, I did try to figure out a way to index, but easier said then done. Part of the problem is the number of teeth varied depending on the size of the gear being made. In the end, it really wasn't much work since I didn't need to make many gears.

[@patprop74]

True, some times the easies solution is the best one, besides who wants to build jigs all day! this example make me think this, Take CNC guys lol Try to do that on a cnc that cost less then 150$ lol

[@Bluuplanet]

Maybe just print out an extra copy of the gear and glue it to the fixture that the gear stock piece rotates on. Put the gear on the fixture so the teeth align with the paper, make the cut and then rotate till everything is in alignment again. That piece of paper would endure a lot of rubbing, so it should have a smooth, clear finish applied.