Thread: video: cutting helical gears

No sure if this has been posted here before, but this is quite fascinating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiBU7yxkpzc&t=1956s

He uses a compound 'X/Y' table sat atop the milling table to get the angles etc - plus he's got a vanilla vertex rotary table (with dividing plate) geared to that compound table's leadscrew - not a universal dividing head.

All pretty cool and all very inventive.

Not a universal dividing head; not even a universal milling machine. From what I can figure out, his gear train appears to be driven by a stepper motor referenced to the table leadscrew via arduino. Clever stuff. Gives me some inspiration to go and set up my universal dividing head on my universal milling machine and do it the 1950s way. One day I'll find the time.
I'm curious why he would be climb milling?

Originally Posted by Pete O

I'm curious why he would be climb milling?

Because, assuming the machine has some kind of anti-backlash device for the feed, climb milling is almost always better than conventional; you get a better surface finish and there is less wear on the cutting edges.

Yeah, pretty inspirational. Shows that you don't need that universal mill and dividing head and with a little ingenuity you can do some difficult stuff. I'm always amazed at how obvious clever things are.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Because, assuming the machine has some kind of anti-backlash device for the feed, climb milling is almost always better than conventional; you get a better surface finish and there is less wear on the cutting edges.

Maybe but his finish is shyte. Take a look at the 38:41 mark and look at those teeth flanks.

I saw this vid last year and thought the same thing then. Neat idea but that finish isn't acceptable really.

I like the Arduino approach, incidentally. I use them and Raspberry Pi computers for all sorts of things.

PDW

Hi Guys,

Am I looking at the same video ? He is using a DC motor and variable voltage power supply to control the feed speed. At one point he quotes 10 mm/minute.

I'm a long way from being familiar with stuff like arduinos and the like; to me that setup is waaay more complex than a universal mill with a universal dividing head and gear train.
I also noticed the abysmal finish on the gear teeth, I wondered if they might be intended to be lapped or some other process?

A lot of effort to set up to cut a gear though, If hes doing it because he can or wants the challenge, I can understand, however I cant help wondering if it would be cheaper just to have a gear cut by a gear cutting firm.
peter

The poor finish could be down to a number of things; cutter runout, arbor runout, rigidity.

Given that it's in aluminium, I suspect it's just a proof of concept.