[sanddrag]

I talked to our laser guy and he said if I can draw it he can cut it. He said the finish will not be as good as something you could buy but it should be acceptable for the use. Now I'm just wondering how to draw it? I have no idea how. Also, I was wondering if the gear can be machined on something like a 4 axis CNC. If we put round stock of the proper OD in the 4th axis the machine can index it for cutting the groove between each tooth. However, I have no clue as to what tool (or if one even exists) to cut the teeth in size of gear. Any insight?

Last, I have one more question. Is 3/16 wide steel gear witrh a 2mm keyway (8 mm bore for the Chia shaft) enough to hold the torque it will have on it. Will the keyway strip out or enlarge or should it be okay since it is steel. Now, we could always go to a titanium gear. No joke. The laser cuts it very nice.

Anyway, my end goal in all this is to get another source for these gears besides PIC. If we make them, it would not be much harder to make 20 than it would be to make 2 so we could make it easier for everyone.