[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Get some sponsors then, google, phonebook, etc... It doesn't have to be laser either, could be waterjet.

We're certainly working on it. Our economic region isn't particularly bright (Troy has 14% unemployment and I bet Latham isn't much better), but if we do we'll see. I'm just generally a fan of modifying COTS parts in house, since that's more reliable than counting on the donated services of a sponsor, plus it puts less stress on them.

I think effective design and pocketing of existing steel gears would yield more bang for your buck than investigating aluminum gears.

That's probably true, I'm just interested in seeing if we can throw a few bucks at the problem to avoid having to pocket steel.

You should also learn how to calculate gearstrengh using Lewis Bending Numbers, once you do it's trivial to determine if a gear will survive; no need to experiment to solve a problem that's been solved for a hundred years.

I've heard that Lewis numbers tend to be conservative, but I've still been meaning to learn. Thanks for the reminder. Lewis numbers do say my drivetrain application should hold up.