Quote:
Originally Posted by Tcrump47
We have access to a waterjet for curtain and will probably gain access to a CNC mill (hoping). Thanks for all of the information.
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All of our past gearboxes have been made with waterjetted aluminum plates. When using 1/8" thick material, we've just dimensioned the holes to match the bearing size and pressed the bearings in. When we used 1/4" material, the taper left by the waterjet was substantial enough that we had to ream out the bearing holes (we used
this step drill bit, works for 0.875" and 1.125" bearing holes)
We also add .003" between meshing gears, as Max recommended. If you download some CAD models from AndyMark you'll see that they do the same. Works good!
This is a good standoff material, as there is a pre-existing hole that works with #10 machine screws. You can face off lengths in a lathe or milling machine and just run a long bolt through each standoff with a nut on the end. You could just use a solid bar and drill out a hole on your lathe, but if you are making long standoffs this gets to be pretty tedious.