# Automatic Gear Cutting



## deeferdog (Mar 20, 2019)

For the past eight months or so I have been fooling around, trying to make an attachment for a milling machine that would cut gears. Because I'm lazy, I wanted the machine to do all the work. I don't think this is unreasonable as winding a table back and forth, turning the dividing head etc. etc is boring to say the least as well as easy to make a mistake.
I was lucky enough to be given half a milling machine that didn't work electrically and I married that to a cheap Chinese compound table which I motorised with a small 12v motor. This solved the back and forth bit. I made the rotary head and fitted a three jaw chuck, this was then driven through a gearbox with a stepper motor. The head was indexed using the advice given in Arduino Rotary Table for Dummies by both bmac2 and tjwal. I owe both you fellas a big thank you!
Today, the machine cut its first unsupervised gear that I thought was passable, needless to say that I hovered nervously in the background. The spur gear is a 64 tooth Mod 1 using a No 7 Chinese gear cutter, I brought the set of eight off Aliexpress.
Lots of problems, but that's the fun of it I suppose. Gear backlash in the rotary head was solved using a bicycle disc brake set up  and a 12v solenoid and the electrical circuit nearly drove me mad before I arrived at a solution. I have posted a few pics, plus a link to a short Youtube video. If anyone wants to know any of the build details, please ask. I hope there are few out there that might enjoy this. Cheers, Peter








Here is the YouTube link:


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## Lloyd-ss (Mar 20, 2019)

Gotta say, I am impressed. First off, it actually works! But it is also clever,  it uses some scrounged parts, unconventional application of off the shelf parts, multiple skill sets, some borrowed technology, and its real pretty, too. I don't want to get you all puffed up, so I will stop there, LOL.
Excellent project! I hope you have a lot of gears to cut.
Lloyd


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## ShopShoe (Mar 21, 2019)

What Lloyd-ss said.  A great combination of things to produce a wonderful piece of machinery.

thank you for posting this.

--ShopShoe


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## Johno1958 (Mar 22, 2019)

Well done. You have bought a smile to my face and given me some ideas.
Thank you.
John


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