Does anyone know of any literature on making a gear mill cutter? I recognize that there are 8 cutters for a given diametral pitch to cover a range for a number of teeth.
I can easily create the correct involute profile on my CAD, but am curious on how to cut this profile into a tool using basic equipment (i.e., non-CNC equipment; just using standard tool room engine lathe & universal milling machine).
I know I could make a virtual hob, but without a direct differential drive I cannot hob the gear, plus I would have to take multiple passes and reset the angular position of the work piece and cutter to approximate the correct profile. This would generate the involute out of straight lines. This sounds to me like a lot of work and there's probably a better way.
One thought I had was for a gear mill cutter was to approaximate the involute with a radius. This would give me approx a 0.003 error in profile for one of my test cases. However, if I remember correctly, out of the cutter set, each cutter has the actual profile for either the lowest or highest number of teeth; I can't remember which one.
In any event, this tells me that somehow they cut or grind the correct profile. Tis brings me back to my original question; how do they do that?
I hope someone can help me on this.
Thanks
I can easily create the correct involute profile on my CAD, but am curious on how to cut this profile into a tool using basic equipment (i.e., non-CNC equipment; just using standard tool room engine lathe & universal milling machine).
I know I could make a virtual hob, but without a direct differential drive I cannot hob the gear, plus I would have to take multiple passes and reset the angular position of the work piece and cutter to approximate the correct profile. This would generate the involute out of straight lines. This sounds to me like a lot of work and there's probably a better way.
One thought I had was for a gear mill cutter was to approaximate the involute with a radius. This would give me approx a 0.003 error in profile for one of my test cases. However, if I remember correctly, out of the cutter set, each cutter has the actual profile for either the lowest or highest number of teeth; I can't remember which one.
In any event, this tells me that somehow they cut or grind the correct profile. Tis brings me back to my original question; how do they do that?
I hope someone can help me on this.
Thanks