Author Topic: Another CNC gear thread  (Read 1758 times)

Offline kvom

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Another CNC gear thread
« on: January 26, 2019, 05:02:26 PM »
After paying $40+ for the helical gear for the Benson, and $50+ for the bevel gear and pinion for the Grasshopper, I decided to spend even more and make some equivalent gears myself using the Gearotic software.  This costs $120 for a lifetime license, but it does give not only a complete gear train design environment, but also generates the g-code for cutting the gears using endmills along with CNC 4th axis.

I was all gungho to try a helical gear in brass, but I'm laid up with a pulled back muscle.  And since my 4th axis is damn heavy, I won't be setting up in the mill until that's over with.

The software will generate a DXF for a straight gear, and obviously I can generate the code for that with my current CAM software without the 4th axis.  Using the 4th axis, the max depth of cut is the depth of a gear tooth, while 2.5D milling DOC is the thickness of the gear.  The 4th axis method is going to be slower.  I'll do some experiments to compare the two in software simulation.

Stay tuned.

 

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