Lasercutting Spur Gears?

[Matt Adams]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Thanks for all the input. I was just curious since we have lasercutting companies as sponsors who are willing to make stuff for us. The gear I was referring too would be the PIC 0.7 module one that takes so long to get.

Despite that the .7 module gears are such fine teeth, I would imagine that these could be laser cut. Per a slide on some non traditional machining methods, lasers can drill holes as small as .0002 inches in diameter and cut with depth to diameter ratios of 50:1. However, this will largely depend on the quality of the machines they have. In addition, the opperating cost for these machines is low ($1.50 / hour), so assuming that they'd be willing to spare the labor cost (the bigger part of the equation, $20-50 / hr) I'd bet you could make this happen.

Good luck!

Matt