pic: So, Andy Mark was sold out!

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Big Ideas

For flat pieces it's possible to hold the stock with double sided tape (thin like carpet tape) on a sacrificial subplate like MDF, HDF, or MDF with melemene. Or drill a few tooling holes and screw the stock down the the subplate. This way you can make your final thru cut and not have to file all of those perfectly machined teeth.

Double-sided tape on MDF won't work if you intend to use coolant. I've also had issues with parts shifting slightly on non-coolant milling (engraving acrylic) when relying only on double-sided tape to hold the parts in place.

Using a fixture plate (as sandrag already mentioned) is the best method. Since all AM sprockets have the same "standard" Ø1.875" six hole pattern, just make a permanent fixture plate if you intend to mill a lot of sprockets.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Just curious, what did you use in CAD for the tooth profile?

I've milled 25p sprockets from the CAD models available on McMaster and/or SDP-SI. I've been meaning to create an equation-driven SolidWorks model where you can just edit the number of teeth in the equation and hit Rebuild to make any size sprocket you want (I did that with gears a few years ago), but downloading existing part models is easier...