Spline gauge.

I have a little job to do making a shaft with a spline at each end but not sure of the angle of the splines is there such a thing as a spline gauge similar to a pitch gauge we use for thread I.D

Regards Alan.

I've had a look on the net but can't find what I'm looking for, maybe I'm wasting my time and it doesn't exist.

Splines are a generic term.

Are they straight sided or involute [ curved ]

If straight then the angle between them is 360 divided by the number of splines.

If involute then they usually have a designation like 10/20 where the DP is 10 but they are cut to 20dp depth.

Hi John yes they are straight, it's the angle to grind a cutter to that I'm not sure of, it's a drive shaft of one of those small 4x4 you see on farms, is there such a thing as I described to measure the angle of the splines or do I have to go down the maths route.

Alan.

Had another look and they are involute, am I right in thininking they are 90degree 45 per side?

Alan.

I did a bit of development work for a company that made replacement rear axle shafts for quad bikes, just like you want to do . The splines we had on the shafts were a 90 degree angle and were rolled onto the shaft originally. we were able to cut the splines by using a dividing head and a simple end mill along with a bit of relatively simple maths.

Thanks Steve, I'm going to do it using a dividing head and a piece of HSS I would buy a proper cutter but wouldn't know what to buy so I'll stick to plan A for now and see how I get on.

Alan.

I recently had to make a clutch shaft for a modern clutch with square splines. I wasn't till I started to look at the form that the teeth are square but the cutter needed had angled sides and a radius on the bottom of the cutter. I managed to gang mill the teeth and used an end mill to under cut the radius.

A straight sided splinf probably locates by the OD in the mating part. That means the minor diameter is nor critical as long as it clears the mating part. An end mill will work for the sides of the spline. Multiple cuts with the end mill can produce a minor diameter that is nearly round. If you want a true radius on the minor diameter you could grind a profile cutter for a fly cutter.

In theory a straight sided spline locates, and drives on, the flanks of the splines. Neither the OD or ID play a part. However, unlike involute splines straight sided splines are not self-centreing. So depending upon tolerances the OD or ID may in practice provide a limit to radial movement.

Rather than try and measure the angles it'll be much simpler to do the maths, or draw it out in CAD.

Commercial cutters are available for straight sided splines, but tend to be for larger splines than MEs would require. When I needed to cut the splines on my traction engine crankshafts I made my own spline cutter:

The splines were cut on the horizontal mill using a dividing head for indexing:

Note that the mechanism is not rusty, it's a trick of the light fooling the camera!

Andrew

Vintage eng...........given the vehicle you are hanging out of, the closest you have come to a spline is a one inch square one that fits into the bronze centre of a cone clutch. But I won't tell anyone.😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇

Given its colour it might have been the one I owned😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈