My first wooden gears

Many thanks to Matthias Wandel http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html for his prior work - these two gears represent about 45 minutes to an hour in the shop last night. I don't yet know what I'll use them for... toys for the kids (toys for me?)... but it sure opens up the possibilities for future projects!

Printed on a laserjet, glued to the plywood using 3M spray adhesive, cut on a bandsaw, center hole bored on the drill press. Large gear is 24 teeth, small one is 8 teeth. Plywood is 1/2" Baltic Birch leftover from other projects. Large gear overall diameter is about 7", small one is about 2.75" diameter.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• gears
• wooden
• wood
• plywood

[rma002]

What method did you use to cut those out?

[yewtewber]

@rma002 Everything was done by hand on the bandsaw. I first rough-cut the outer circle, then made inward cuts along the surface of the teeth. In the gullets, I usually just nibbled away with the bandsaw, moving the gear side-to-side approaching the line. Nothing extremely precise, but good enough for a proof of concept!

[bayhoecott]

Wow !!!! did you write this gear program. If so congratulations and 10 out of 10

[yewtewber]

Nope - sorry. I attributed that to Matthias Wandel in the video description section.

Another tip I've just discovered on my own. When using spray adhesive to stick the paper to the wood, just a light spray will keep things well in place, but you can still peel off the paper with little trouble.

[MrKaddan]

@yewtewber what adhesive did you use? I try to use wood glue, but it's just not accurate enough.. it wobbles around and the layer always gets too thick..

[yewtewber]

@MrKaddan

I just used a 3M brand general purpose spray adhesive. On my first gear, I really sprayed a thick coat, but after cutting the gear I found the paper difficult to remove. On later gears, I did a light coat. That held the paper in place very well but allowed it to be peeled off after cutting.

The bandsaw does a good rough cut, but on gears for actual use, I smooth the rough edges with a rasp and/or file.

QUICK TIP: Drill your center hole first, then cut the teeth.

[bayhoecott]

Thanks for the tip about the spray glue. Is there any way I can get a hard copy of the gear program on disc ? Cheers Peter

[billiam2635]

Amazing! You should make a jig of some sort to hold the two gears together.