Making a Gears Cutting Machine

[@manickn6819]

Nice. I was 3/4 way through making one similar to that a few years ago. Since then I am in a different location without access to the tools. Really inspirational to see your version.

[@ChrisCraigie-oi1un]

Outstanding presentation! What a simple but clever technique for gear cutting without a lathe. Thanks.

[@russbilzing5348]

Simplicity of form always adds to the chance of success following quickly on it's heels. A fine job.

[@micarifamily1]

This is absolutely fantastic! I don't see why you couldn't use alot of different size taps for different gear sets, amazing thank you for this!!

[@bobuk5722]

There is a good question below about how the starting blank size is determined. It's more complex than one might hope! Basically two parameters have to be chosen, the number of teeth required and the size of the teeth. The size of the teeth is often expressed as the gears 'modulus' or alternatively the 'diametrical pitch' and in this case will be determined by the size of the thread on the tap. The arithmetic involved is too complex to explain here, if interested look up 'Gear hobbing' and 'Basic gear terminology'. Hobbing produces accurately formed gear teeth with something called an 'Involute' form which is the one usually used for power transmission. Things like clocks tend to use a different tooth profile designed to minimise rolling resistance. Gear teeth are usually anything but straight sided - that gear tooth shape would rub, absorb power and wear quickly, instead forms are used that can roll over each other.

[@cranegantry868]

That's a fascinating insight into gear making. I'm an electronics bloke so looking into the world of making gears is like entering a dark cave.

[@pexobestia]

Well, yeah, that kind of gear caculus was one hell of exam at machinist school, 33 years ago...

[@TimoNoko]

I had to take some machinist's lesson in university. I only remember this "If the teeth do not meet you can add half a tooth or skip a tooth, OR you can learn from me how to do it properly." I was hoping for some hands-on exercises with a lathe, but it was all just boring equations and tables, so I soon forgot it all.

[@Rozbujnik_Rumcajs]

In the other hand this sharp tooh profile would be ideal for 3d printer extruder. Like in the new extruder from prusa.

[@viswanathanramakrishnan7613]

Really speaking your machine seems to be very useful for those who are DIYers. Nice job.

[@KyleofAsgard]

I hate how simple this is for how well it works. Haha, awesome work!

[@I_SuperHiro_I]

That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in quite a while.

[@Reman1975]

I made a jig to do that on a mini lathe years ago. The gears I could make weren't perfect, but still very usable. The only problem I found was that sometimes a certain diameter of circle just wouldn't work, and you'd end up with the gear getting munched up as the teeth on the tap would line up with teeth on the gear (Rather than the valley's) after it made a full revolution. It was still a useful tool though. The only thing I'd have done differently on your standalone unit would have been to mount the cutter WAY higher than the centre line of the gear blanks platform. That way you could adjust the height of contact to suit the blank using shim plates. If it was made this way you could also make gears with a hub mounting boss sticking out of the side. Apart from that, it's a really nicely thought out (And made) piece of kit.

[@edwardyoung7851]

if you kept winding it in, so the gear got smaller, wouldnt it eventually go back in sync?

[@peoplez129]

Of course this would happen, because the size of the circle determines how many teeth it can fit. Or in other words, the total circumference of the circle needs to be multiplied by the size of the tooth being cut into it.

[@Reman1975]

@@peoplez129 To an extent yes, but it wasn't quite that simple. I'm not sure if I can describe it clearly, but if you started with a blank that had the exact circumference you needed for it to theoretically finish on a whole tooth, it still wouldn't necessarily work. The problem was that (For example) if you wanted a 10tpi gear with 100 teeth, you'd "know" that you'll need a blank with a 10" circumference, so a diameter of 3.183". The thing is though, when you start cutting on the 3.183" circle with the tips of the cutters teeth you'll have that 10tpi, but when those teeth are fully formed they'll be somewhere around 0.1" deep, so the effective root diameter will end up 0.2" smaller, and this new diameter may NOT be devisable into a whole tooth count. As I said, I'm not sure I've got the words to fully explain what I'm trying to say (It's 06:30 here at the minute, and I still haven't managed to get to sleep, so that doesn't help. :D). I found that way I needed to do was very slightly oversize the blank and start with a deep enough cut for the cutter to have a path of least resistance to follow on it's second pass. This usually resulted in one tooth looking too wide until the gear was finished, but every time it went round it would be taking material off the leading face of the teeth before it, both sides of the fat tooth, and the trailing side of the ones following it. Once the teeth get part formed then the gear sort of guides itself and it'll be OK, but it seems that a difference of 0.01" on the diameter could be enough to prevent it starting to do this self guiding. I hope this makes enough sense for you to work out what I'm TRYING to say. I've got a horrible feeling that I'll re-read this later and even I won't be able to follow what my sleep deprived brain's been wittering on about.

[@samjohnson4846]

This video is amazing. You're truly talented. Pure art and skill...

[@mickeyfilmer5551]

Nicw job, you have given me a few Ideas for making my own with some similar parts I have in my stash of reclaimed bits and pieces.

[@AnthonyCurreri]

Ingenious! Love your projects. Just the fact that you got the spacing of the pulleys exact so the belt was tensioned perfectly (without any adjustment) is mind boggling to me.

[@sjv6598]

I’m guessing he simply measured the distance required between the pulleys..

[@lamazver]

How did you determine the diameter of gear for this thread chaser? If you screw the diameter you can make one and a half tooth on it

[@jacobkudrowich]

Probably by using the thread pitch of the tap to determine how many teeth per mm then figure how many teeth you need in the gear and multiply by the distance between the teeth to get your final diameter

[@lamazver]

@@jacobkudrowich I like your way of thinking. But you forgot to add the length of the circle

[@morris4069]

Your speed and diameter is going to dictate the number of teeth. What it seems like he’s doing is simply letting the tap cut. I’ll bet he didn’t take the angle of the taps thread in to consideration,that would make better running gears. Former gear cutter, you have speed, feed, pitch and cutter angle to cut correct gears. Your just playing around with something that kinda works.

[@madshoveler6002]

@@morris4069 I don't think the speed matters in the case because the teeth will line up inside the tap threads without depending. You just have to make sure the diameter of the circle will give even teeth spacing

[@lnnm1638]

I guess the circumference of the gear must be devisible by the tap's thread pitch.

[@garabillorobertv.3053]

Put another plastic washer under the disc so as to reduce friction between the disc and work plate

[@jasonputtock4428]

no flat bearing would be best. LAteral

[@garabillorobertv.3053]

@@jasonputtock4428 even better👍

[@darkwater72]

You're going to want the blank disc tight to the surface in a small device like this. I doubt there is a ton of clamping force here. Open space just allows "chatter" to happen.

[@MCsCreations]

Brilliant work, Maciej! Really well done! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@royallan3717]

As a lad I remember all the math that went into the indexing head. Well done on a fantastic job and video

[@Totalrepairsolution]

Infect I Personally Like Tool Very Much ❤❤💖💖💖💖💕💕💕💕👌👌👌👌👌👌

[@justinbeloy5829]

Antibody else like it? 😀😆😆😆

[@Gaspard-uc4iv]

La construction de son mécanisme me plaît beaucoup, c'est travaillé à la perfection un ouvrage très pratique et une minutie assez rare dans ce type de vidéo.

[@richard-cf8ce]

I don't know how I stumbled on your page it's 5 in the morning I live in Fairbanks Alaska I've got concrete in 2 hours so I can't watch all of it right now but you're on the team. The Apocalypse team😅💥 I'll check you out more of your stuff later I just wanted you to know. I appreciate your intellect.

[@be007]

I like the idea very much! 2 points of attention, 1; the tap should turn the other way, then the cutting force on the sprocket would be down making it much more rigid. 2; I would make a height adjustment option for the sprocket so that you can make straight spur gears. cheers ben.

[@TalRohan]

you would need something like a drill driver for this most motors aren't easily reversible ...as far as I am aware anyway

[@Rozbujnik_Rumcajs]

@@TalRohan Just mirror design and direction of tap will be flipped too.

[@seanporter8821]

It looks like an DC motor, all you have to do to reverse direction is swap the power wires.@@TalRohan

[@pieterveenders9793]

@@TalRohan No, it's a simple DC motor, all you need to do is reverse the polarity in order to reverse the motor direction.

[@Gaspard-uc4iv]

​@@seanporter8821j'y pensais à la première remarque, c'est à peu près sûr qu'il utilise un moteur à courant continu donc très facile d'inverser le sens de marche puisque c'est juste un échange de polarité, et aucun doute que ce monsieur est assez imaginatif pour coupler un petit inverseur à son moteur, enfin ci s'il voulait travailler avec un moteur à courant alternatif il peut essayer de récupérer un moteur de volet roulant extrêmement puissant et fiable avec une inversion de rotation toute aussi facile à réaliser, vous montez ou descendez vos volets à l'aide d'un simple interrupteur inverseur je pense même que c'est l'idéal s'il veut travailler en courant alternatif.

[@Ififitzisitz]

I loved this video, just imagine the things you can do with this wonderful machine!

[@frankmchutchison9436]

thank you for sharing and showing how to do a proper job

[@slava2slavovich520]

Ты гений !!!👍👍👍 Круто обязательно сделаю !!! Где ты был раньше , не знал как сделать.

[@Gaminiheraliyawala]

Excellent tutorial for tech savvy dudes. I have no words to thank you for the quality of the work, neatness of the craftmanship presented. well Done...👌👌👍👍❤❤

[@fabriziofart]

Now that was refreshing to watch and learn. Thank you

[@homeworkshopengineering]

Some brilliant ideas here to make it work. People can pick fault but not many can show you the better one that they made. Really enjoy watching people solve problems. Have subscribed 👍

[@Gaspard-uc4iv]

Bien vu, il faut retenir dans cette démonstration que c'est une véritable petite pépite en matière de bricolage, et effectivement j'aimerais voir ces personnes qui abordent les caractères plutôt techniques des pignons d'engrenages fabriquer cet appareil avec la même imagination et une telle minutie, non seulement c'est réalisation est pratique pour qui elle peut rendre des services mais de plus c'est un bel outil parfaitement réalisé.

[@stephenbell8323]

Just had a thought, if the work bed could be angled up and locked into place one could also cut bevel gears!

[@nalinux]

Simple and efficient, I love this.

[@b-eppielectricworld9691]

C'è solo da sedersi, ammirare ed imparare. Grazie!

[@Thekarlskorner]

I did basically the same about fourty years ago by making miniature guitar tuners using a 5-40 tap held in a collect on a South Bend lathe then mounting the brass worm gear blanks on a piece of key stock held in the normal lathe tool holder. I forget how I determined the diameter, but they worked with the mated 5-40 flat head screws I fashioned into the tuner peg parts. My eyes would never allow me to duplicate them today.

[@Skaldewolf]

Well, looks like nice project to try myself.

[@lklmmedia4715]

Fantastic - I have just been introduced to Free Hobbing for Worm gear making...and One thing I struggle a little with on the Micro lathe, in having taps that are Not long enough down the lathe bed is that I can't make Worm gears over 140mm in size. I can see this Jig being Perfect for doing almost any size - the Chuck is the sticking point on the lathe, but if I built a Purpose "Tap chuck" or even just where I can mount the Tap in a sleeve that brings it further out into the Lathe bed I should also be able to make a sled to go in place of the Tool stock which suits the size of gear I want to make. But regardless - I am adding a Small gear tool like this to my project list, I love the idea of Undercutting the gear then flipping it over to get a Standard toothed Gear. How about Self-Indexing that you get from Free Hobbing - isn't it just Mysteriously Unbelievable!!!!

[@homemadetools]

Nice work. We shared this video on our homemade tools forum this week 😎

[@thonpheakdey]

So Creative. Very nice 👍

[@jimparsons6803]

Liked the notion of using a tap for the hobbing.

[@hectorenriquemotamanzano8241]

Muy práctico y con mucho ingenio mecánico se nota que eres un tecnico mecanico te felicito😊😊

[@whitelion7976]

This is good I will try to make this. Would this be better with a larger tap as the smaller the tap the more hollow the teeth on the gear and would only grip on the edge

[@benbawden3348]

Wow, fantastic build 👌👏👏

[@Der_Drache]

it is funny that youtube recommended this video to me and the first thing i see on the thumbnail is that you are using a Thread Former Tap and not a cutting tap. as the name says its made to form a thread by pushing material aside and not to cut it. that nobody saw that is even more amazing

[@flyerphil7708]

That is a cutting tap, you can tell because it’s cutting.

[@matthewgowan7546]

@@flyerphil7708 It's a form tap with oil grooves, the only reason it's cutting at all is because the contact point with the workpiece isn't set correctly, causing it to strike the oil grooves in the tap. Look at the rolled burr on the gear.

[@cesardesouza4394]

Clever and clean

[@DEEPWATER..]

You are a professional engineer .

[@NikitosZs]

Метчик зажимается в патрон токарного станка, державка диска (будущей шестерни) в резцедержку и готово.

[@diymicha2]

I like the DIY-thumb best. Nice work mate :)

[@vinceianni4026]

Hello mister good job well done

[@paradiselost9946]

if you must use a tap, try a whitworth 55°. gives a slightly lower pressure angle of 27.5°... an iso tap will give a 30° pressure angle. traditional gears run 20°. if you look at a gear hob you see the teeth or "threads" are much sharper, pointier, deeper... narrower. the included angle is 40°. occasionally 14.5° pops up. as the pressure angle increases, the load on the teeth becomes more radial, which loads shafts and bearings, as the pressure angle decreases the teeth tend to become long and flimsy. 20 degrees has been found to be a nice compromise between the two to the point its now virtually standard. because the work isnt being driven by its own geartrain, this operation is more accurately termed "gashing". hobbing is a varied topic, can do more than just gears with them!

[@ahmedhamada5896]

فوق الممتاز افكارك أكثر كنت رائعة

[@garymucher4082]

Nice build and setup. Now modify it so that the gear part (part you are cutting) is on a vertical adjustable plate and you will have a perfect gear making machine... Thumbs Up!

[@tedbastwock3810]

I love it, very good job, thanks for sharing it with us.

[@arsenios1]

Βρε φιλαράκι είσαι απίστευτος, τα θερμά μου συγχαρητήρια!!!

[@vijaykumardahisaria7325]

Beautiful gear cutting

[@plusmanikantanr]

This will work for simple small tooth gears. But arent gear teeth meant to have a weird dome like profile? I think it is for backlash or something so that they engage smoother.

[@camifracelli631]

Indeed (involute) but it's not for backlash, it's for "smoothness". Here it doesn't matter : it's not for heavy application / he will be fine

[@rossgalbraith3878]

Involute tooth forms will in theory roll at the contact line on the tooth flanks rather than slide.

[@artbyrobot1]

pretty insane and genius well done

[@andyb7754]

Very nice project, well done.

[@asharma9345]

Dude Epic, Keep it up.

[@Stefan_Boerjesson]

Well done but... Using a lathe and building a gear holder fitted on the carriage would be a more easy way.

[@serdar-ors]

can u give an example for this

[@money1star]

Not everyone has a lathe

[@walter762]

Great (and super elegant) system. 10x!

[@aldosorgentini]

amazing. you are really a genius !!

[@abdulkareemahmed1322]

Your work is detailed and pretty good

[@FCFDave]

Very nicely done, and all-around great video.

[@p4our587]

Great job! Thank you, for sharing!

[@AmmiHamzah]

Excellent job

[@tutentam312]

skurczybyk, masz łeb na karku;) piękna polska robota, pozdrawiam

[@nikbivation]

wow incredible!

[@SteveShivik]

WOW totally blown away so amazing!

[@bartoszswieciak8341]

Wait so you can't change the tool? If that's the case then it's pretty useless, not only you have to change the tool once in a while when it's used up but also you can only cut one module but even if you overlook that then theres still a problem because even whithin the same module diferent sized gears (as in 12 teeth vs 36teeth etc) have to be cut with diferent tools because teeth have diferent shapes based on the number of teeth (again even within the same module). Feel free to correct me if im wrong :)

[@davidjones-vx9ju]

you are right this is bullshit

[@RealBobLoblaw]

nice work

[@waldino5543]

Te luciste, una cosa sencilla pero bien pensada 👌

[@henryrossouw930]

Amazingingly precise workmanship.Doesnt know nuch about gears but the workmanship is outstanding.Subscribed.

[@MrReichennek]

Very Interesting use of a Form/Roll tap here. I guess a cutting tap would be a lot more prone to catching and breaking teeth in a set up like this.

[@davidjones-vx9ju]

taps are for making threads not gears

[@brandontraugher]

Believe it or not, this is how Reese's cups are given their iconic shape.

[@сержсоболев-м5э]

Обязательно попробую! Спасибо за идею! 👍

[@BlackringIII]

Why not have the tap cut downwards (rotate other way)? Seems like some extra error might be introduced by the current direction when the gear lifts?

[@MIKE_FROM_DETROIT]

It would bind with downward pressure, upward pressure allows the gear to turn as it's being cut.

[@anelpasic5232]

@@MIKE_FROM_DETROIT You could add a nylon washer beneath it to minimize friction. I did it that way on my lathe and it worked flawlessly.

[@cdrive5757]

Nice work. I'm surprised that you didn't take advantage of the Tap's center for more support at the bottom of the tap. Especially when cutting tougher material like steel. Wakodahatchee Chris

[@arbiewolfe3027]

And perhaps having the tap come from the other side so that the gear is supported by the fixture base instead of being jarred upwards?

[@growleym504]

Very nice. It must be pointed out, though, that diameter is extremely critical for the gear disk. The circumference, more to the point. The circumference at the bottom of the cuts must be divisible by the number of teeth per inch of the tap, to a whole number, so as the gear rotates around to the origin, the tap teeth and the first gear tooth line up exactly. Also the resulting gear will work best with a worm gear driving it, made from a bolt of same thread pitch as the tap. Trying to drive this gear from a standard gear or vice versa will not work very well, because the bottom of the cuts is not straight, but curved, unless you make several cuts, raising or lowering the gear. Also the teeth are not perpendicular but at an angle, so the angle would have to be matched on the other gear for good mesh. For very thin gears this would be less of an issue. Overall, I like it a lot. I may even build something similar, perhaps with a chuck to accept different taps, or maybe with a high quality hand drill as both tap chuck and motor.

[@Gaspard-uc4iv]

Après avoir regardé ce type de vidéo c'est vrai qu'on peut émettre toute sortes de critiques , pour ce qui est de votre idée d'utiliser une perceuse qui permettrait de changer de tarauds là encore suffisamment d'imagination chez notre concepteur pour intégrer un mandrin sur le roulement et je suis quasiment certain que c'est pour cette solution qu'il opterait.

[@galaxiedance3135]

It is a good solution for what you have to work with. However, I hope people understand that the tooth profile is not correct. I was a gear cutter for several years also a tool & cutter grinder, so I also made the cutters. Gears are incredibly accurate parts! These tools and methods aren't the ones used by gear shops. Sometimes I had to make a cutter with the profile accurate to 0.0005 mm. That is not a typing mistake. While the gears work, it's not going to last as long or run as quietly as a properly cut gear.

[@lo2740]

yes, actual gear teeth have a much more subtle and complicate profile.

[@darkwater72]

Is there a reason you had the tap cutting "up" and lifting the blank up and away from the table, instead of "down" and pressing the blank INTO the table?

[@MrBurntnoodles]

Climb cutting is the best for chips and making the teeth on the cutter last longer as the chips start smaller and form larger vs start large and go smaller. This is just my assumption though as to why he did it that way. CNC milling cuts the same way.

[@MrBurntnoodles]

Upon further inspection it's conventional milling because the setup isn't very rigid

[@jozefnovak7750]

Super! Thank you very much!

[@adolphtrudeau]

How do you align the cut once you flip the disc?

[@ModelLights]

There may be a way to use hand taps. Use two taps, geared together and out of phase, so when one is in the gap the other is cutting. Once you get it cutting correctly and cut opposite sides or similar, it should work well enough and maybe cheaper or easier than finding machining taps.

[@jasonputtock4428]

Love it. well done.

[@sky173]

Nice work. I may have to use some of these ideas for my next project, but the gears I need are 13mm thick so the blank will have to raise very slowly as it turns. Again, nice job and thanks for sharing.

[@stevebabiak6997]

Another comment suggested to mount the tap higher, and then shimming beneath the gear being cut to move it one shim thickness at a time. I think the real difficulty might be aligning things so that the teeth are lined up.

[@Kapalek84]

super maszynka!

[@ParsMaker]

Nice work

[@jackjanovec4214]

using the mitutoyo as a scribe is wild hahaha

[@z08840]

it's ONLY suitable for worm gears (or matching gears cut the same way) - since it cuts teeth slightly at angle - to make it a real gear you need to tilt tap by the same angle, so teeth will be straight, and it called gear hobbing

[@youtubasoarus]

This is awesome! One thing I don't understand is how the teeth automatically line up with the circumference? Are the disks taken down to a very specific radius so the teeth line up for the profile of the cutter? I can imagine if you choose a radius too big or too small the teeth would under/overcut the last tooth? I don't understand this.

[@nicholaswouters1203]

I was wondering the same thing

[@Syclone0044]

@@nicholaswouters1203 me too, I just came here from hackaday to ask this question

[@alwaysinformed1]

I may be wrong, but this seems quite similar to knurling where you need a specific radius for the blank you're cutting - based on the Tooth Per Inch of the cutting tool you'll be using (there are calculators online for this). So these gear blanks are likely cut to a precalculated size before being machined into gears.

[@nicholaswouters1203]

@@Syclone0044Me too :) I found the answer in the comments below - the radius has to be a multiple of 2mm (as the tap has a thread pitch of 2mm)

[@dirtdart81]

@@nicholaswouters1203 not the radius, the circumference

[@Unmannedair]

I was going to make some custom drive gears for my extruder... This looks perfect. But i think I'll skip some of the glued bits. A drill and socket should be plenty for driving.

[@ARIFINLATHE]

You did well sir❤

[@gamefan6142]

Well, that's a creative use for taps.

[@serdar-ors]

very good technique. is it possible to make very small gears like in watches with this method ?

[@ValMartinIreland]

How do you get the teeth to fit on the circumference?

[@StevenCookFX]

You have a lathe so you could have easily done it on that too. However this is a standalone gear making system which is nice. :)

[@tarekhassan6958]

Amazing

[@thomasschoppe6610]

Schön, dass mir dein Video vorgeschlagen wurde. Gesehen, begeistert und jetzt hast du einen Abonnenten mehr. Geniale Lösung! Gibt es einen Bauplan?

[@Litl_Skitl]

How usefull would it be to make the feeder spring loaded, so that you have constant force pushing the wheel into the bit?

[@armastat]

You could make a Mint by turning Brass Telescope Gears for hobbyists (4-12 inches) With Small teeth (thats why they are both accurate and wear out fast. lol)

[@le260440]

Geweldig, hier kan ik van genieten, dank.

[@ryuveliji4120]

Why you use a Forming Tap?

[@eCitizen1]

It would be great to do this on my mini lathe. I'd like to make an attachment for exactly that. The diameter of the gear must be a multiple of the teeth spacing, Also,it appears the thickness of the gear is somewhat critical, it should be thicker than the gaps in the tap. Still this is a clever idea for making gears of reasonable utility.

[@tacticalteamkilling6539]

It's called a hobbing machine. I get to inspect parts made on them all day at work, some tiny and some massive!