[sanddrag]

I was just wondering how to make Technokat style dog gears in a CNC mill. I know all about the programming and tooling and stuff, but I'm wondering how to go about setting up the gear in the machine. Do you just clamp it in the vice with lead or aluminum jaws? How do you make sure the teeth don't get deformed; just don't clamp it too tight - but how tight is tight enough? Or do you machine a radius the same as the gear partially into the jaws of the vise to hold it? Would you make some sort of fixture to hold it? Also, once it is held in the machine, how do you go about centering the part because in the program I assume everything would be referenced from the center since it is round. I have only centered rectangular parts with an edgefinder before so I'm not sure how you would do this. Thanks.