Gear Making Information

We at 550 are in a Technical High School, so we have our own machine and weld shops to go to whenever we please. Now, in our machine shop, we have all the standard lathes, presses, mechanical scribers, etc., all with CNC retrofits or new stuff. So, we're pretty equipped for the big stuff. But little stuff, like gears, as somebody said, many machine shops balk at. So, we pleaded and pleaded, and we eventually got them to make gears on a CNC Micro-Lathe, circa 1982. These units are great because they literally do all of the work themselves, including cutting gear teeth. Our robo-machinist, Joe, did all the programming for the CNC, and the gears came out great. We made them out of low-carbon steel and cut them with carbide chisels. The machine took it from round stock to gear within ten minutes. Nice job, too. These machines come on the cheap too. About $200 each, if you can find them. Then, of course, there's the DOS computer with the microcassette drive...