cutting gears in wood

[Anonymous]

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has been able to accomplish this, as I now have a constant headache thinking about it.
Any help and advice as to equipment would be gratefully received.


Many Thanks.

 

[sawdustalley]

Scroll saw?

 

[GrahamC]

Rhino,

what kind of gear are you wanting to cut? I have never cut gears in wood, but have done a few out of metal.

Other than the physical properties of the material there should not be a huge difference in the technique to make them. The actual useable qualities of the wooden gears may be questionable though if they are cut out of solid stock.

It may be, depending on what you are looking for, more appropriate to build them up out of multiple parts.

 

[Gill]

Scroll saw?

Good suggestion, James. I've never done it myself but in theory...

Rhino, why don't you have a look at a book such as "Making Wooden Mechanical Models" by Alan and Gill Bridgewater, or "Making Working Wooden Locks" by Tim Detweiler? Both are available through Amazon.co.uk.

Yours

Gill

 

[Anonymous]

I have tried cutting by hand, using pins instead of teeth, what I want is to cut a variety of different small sized cogs some out of wood using a close grained wood and some of brass, to use in making automata.
Has anybody had experience of the micro milling machine by proxxon I would be interested if any one has one, or had experience of using one, and what their capabilities are.
There is a way using a fly cutter in a pillar drill but you need a way to pass the gear through it .......
by the way thankyou for the replies so far, scroll saws can be used but i am after something less time consuming, the books mentioned are very good, but do not mention gears

thankyou all
Ian

 

[Noel]

Hey Rhino,

Have a look at this, might be of help:

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/workshop/gears.html

Also if you do a google on

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en ... oodworking

you shpold find plenty of info.

There's also a book which may be of help:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 04-4697439
If the wrap is a problem do a search on amazon.co.uk for "Small Woodworking Projects" by The Taunton Press.

Rgds

Noel

 

[StevieB]

A couple of years ago I was quite interested in making a wooden clock after seeing one in a hotel. A quick search on the internet revealed a couple of American companies that sell plans and a couple of sites on cutting gears - try:

http://www.pathcom.com/~u1068740/gears.html

http://www.woodenclocks.com/about.html

http://www.woodenclocks.co.uk

http://www.clockplans.com

among others. As far as I could tell most of these seem to be cut with a scroll saw as James suggested. I think this is probably the only reasonably accurate way for small gears. For very large ones it may be possible to make a template and use a router with a guide bush or collar I guess...

Best of luck, let us know if you discover a better method that a scroll saw. I never did make my clock but still have the plans in a cupboard somewhere - maybe a nice winter evenings project me thinks!

Steve.

 

[Scrit]

I seem to recall that windmills frequently use inserted pins as teeth. I've also seen very strong hardwoods like boxwood and hornbeam used for threaded pieces so I would imagine that those timbers would do a good job as gear teeth, too.

I did learn how to cut gear teeth in metal at school many years ago. It required a milling machine, the appropriate cutter and an indexing head. I can't imagine wood requiring anything that different.

Scrit

 

[Anonymous]

Thankyou all, for the information and very interesting websites I have not visited before, picked up some useful tips on the way, I will perservere with this problem until my wife threatens divorce........mmmmm
should not pursue that one, thanks again to everyone who has taken time out to reply, and to anyone who has any more useful tips.

 

[johnelliott]

This might not be real woodworking, but if the lack of wooden gears is holding up the project then you might consider having the gears cut on a laser. There are engineering firms in most cities now that can do this, either from your own design or with a design done by their own software
John

 

[norman]

Hi Rhino

have read with great interest this thread on gears. I have not had any cause to make any myself but from what I have seen from the comments made a craftsmans router lathe would enable you to do this job, as it has a indexing head - router guide with ajustadle depth cutting and as a bonus an off centre end spindle so maybe you could do bevel gears as well. all you would need is the right cutting bit.
hope this is of some use.

regards
Norman