Reddit reviews Gears & Gear Cutting (Workshop Practice Series 17)

Basic working spur gears are not hard to make.

you need a tool cut to the correct shape for the number of teeth (i.e. A 20 Tooth gear has a different tooth shape to a 40 tooth gear even though they mesh together)
Commercially made tools look like this: http://www.aliexpress.com/gear-cutter-module_reviews.html

Then the blank is indexed for each tooth and a pass made to leave the appropriate cut.

This book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gears-Gear-Cutting-Workshop-Practice/dp/0852429118
Gives much greater detail, including how to make your own cutters.

This book might be interesting to you: https://www.amazon.com/Gears-Gear-Cutting-Workshop-Practice/dp/0852429118/

It's all about gears cutting for the home gamer.

Hey, a few days late, but I’ve been doing a lot of reading on gears and gear cutting, and I’ve found that designing a gear is infinitely more complex than I originally thought. I’ve done a lot of internet research, and my copy of Gears & Gear Cutting by Ivan Law came in the mail the other day, and I’ve read it front-to-back several times now. It’s the Bible for home gear cutting, and after reading it a few times, I’m confident I can make some gears and gear trains at home. I still need a few machines/tools before I can really get started, but I can probably start some simple stuff soon, with what I already have. I am going to try some simple cycloidal gears first. I’ll keep you apprised of my progress if you like.


Again, thanks for your help. I’ll take your comments into consideration when I go to buy some equipment.