Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
Lightening the steel gears, while not particularly FUN to do, isn't very hard and will get you a decent amount of the way there with regards to weight savings.
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Absolutely, I can't believe I forgot to add "lightening" steel gears. For those that are not familiar, you can either cut pockets with a mill, or undercut the gear between the teeth and the hub on a lathe (this is what we usually do). When doing this, make sure to leave a littl material underneath the root of the gear tooth as this can be a highly stressed location on a gear. Also leave material for the hub as this is either the torque transferring area, or has the bearings on an idler gear. We can often cut about 50% of the weight out of the standard AndyMark gears.
Just be careful how you "cuck up" the gears in a lathe so you do not damage the teeth.