Team 4499's first Homemade Gear!

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by Michael 4499

Ya, here are some pictures of the Haas and the setup for cutting gears if anyone was interested. I would personally suggest an old Haas if you can find one over a newer one just because you can get more for less money. It is really nice to have a large x-travel to work with while making long tubes for robot chassis.
Here are the photos:

That looks awesome! Quick question: how'd you locate the center of the gear for the pilot hole and the broaching?

[Michael 4499]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

That looks awesome! Quick question: how'd you locate the center of the gear for the pilot hole and the broaching?

We used a lathe to get the material to the correct diameter and then drilled the 1/2" hole for broaching on a three ton press. We used a three jaw to clamp up on the stock.

[RoboChair]

You know what really cuts my gears? Those Highlander guys!

Looks nice, I would suggest making gear stock and cutting pieces off of it as it is likely to be more time efficient. Also use 7075 if you are going to be putting it on a robot, the cost is worth it. If you are not already aware, 7075 has nearly the same structural properties as 1018 steel but the same softness as aluminum. nice and strong but will wear much quicker.

[Thayer McCollum]

Gosh guys! I'd finally got our HAAS working this month and then you guys have to show up and one-up me? But seriously, this is awesome! I don't think I've seen your guys new (old) VF2 in person though. I'll have to come check it out sometime. Thanks for the help you gave us with HAAS training a bit ago. One last question, I can't tell from the picture, does your HAAS have an automatic tool changer?

[Michael 4499]

Originally Posted by Thayer McCollum

Gosh guys! I'd finally got our HAAS working this month and then you guys have to show up and one-up me? But seriously, this is awesome! I don't think I've seen your guys new (old) VF2 in person though. I'll have to come check it out sometime. Thanks for the help you gave us with HAAS training a bit ago. One last question, I can't tell from the picture, does your HAAS have an automatic tool changer?

Haha, I hope you get it up and running for the season. We do have a 20 tool changer in the haas.

[Michael 4499]

Here is the GitHub link for the python code that we created to make GCode.

[Michael 4499]

Originally Posted by RoboChair

You know what really cuts my gears? Those Highlander guys!

Looks nice, I would suggest making gear stock and cutting pieces off of it as it is likely to be more time efficient. Also use 7075 if you are going to be putting it on a robot, the cost is worth it. If you are not already aware, 7075 has nearly the same structural properties as 1018 steel but the same softness as aluminum. nice and strong but will wear much quicker.

Sorry for the late response, finals week is a struggle. We are really hoping to find some 7075 round stock but there isn't many local metal distributors that keep 7075 in stock. If we thought about this sooner we could've ordered it online. I still think that the 1018 might be a better fit for smaller gears due to it's higher durability and 6061 for the bigger gears. Thanks for the suggestion, we will keep an eye out for some 7075.