Cutting Tetrix gears

[Forhire]

Spent some time on the phone with some really nice folks at Sandvik. I learned a lot.

The Coromill 171 and 172 are profile inserts so you have the same 8 approximate involute shapes you'd find in a typical cutter set. It would be comparable to what were doing now.

The InvoMilling uses the Coromill 161 and 162. The insert is flat bottomed the software generates the involute shape. Single cutter can do any count. A five axis machine is recommended but spur gears can be done with just four. The smallest size the InvoMilling Coromill 161 can do module 2.0. The InvoMilling software is expensive. With the InvoMilling gear cam you can also cut gears with standard end mills and such. It appears the secret sauce is the software more than the cutter.

I was able to talk to a programmer and we discussed the slitting saw method and a few others. He was confident if we could program for the saw then their Coromill 161 would work. The Coromill 161 would be more rigid for sure.

I guess I'll keep working on porting the slitting saw code.