Determining the correct gear pitch for a given rack

I understand how to determine the pitch of a gear by measuring the outside diameter and number of teeth, but how do I measure a rack to get the dimensions/pitch/other of a correctly meshing gear?

For metric MOD pitches measure the pitch of the rack and divide by Pi (3.142....)

For DP divide Pi by the pitch in inches.

Best to measure the rack over say 10 teeth and then take the average rather than trying to measure just one tooth

Edited By JasonB on 07/05/2019 19:50:02

Adam, if you have some dowels or pins of a suitable and identical size to sit about halfway down in the tooth space, you can measure over the pins, over a distance of several teeth. Subtract the diameter of one pin, and divide by the number of teeth, less one (i.e., counting from zero).

By converting into appropriate units you can look up the pitch on a table of metric Module sizes, or diametral pitch (DP) for inch sizes.

Hopefully, this should get you started:

https://khkgears.net/new/gear_knowledge/abcs_of_gears-b/basic_gear_terminology_calculation.html

Bill

oops:

Link to gear calculations

Set your digital caliper to 3.142 inches and offer it up to the rack teeth. If the jaws span a number of teeth exactly then count the teeth they span - that's the equivalent DP of the rack.

If the jaws don't span whole numbers of teeth then it's a module rack. Measure across ten teeth and divide the answer by 31.42.

Pete, that is without doubt the most excellent response anyone could hope for! Many thanks, Adam

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Or perhaps, a 'circular pitch' Imperial rack ?

MichaelG.

Yeah it could be that Michael, good call.

It is a metric machine (Schaublin 12) so indeed probably MOD

I want to make a rack lever for it

Adam,

That looks like an ideal application for a circular pitch rack [be it Imperial of Metric]

... measure carefully

MichaelG.

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Edit: The first two PDFs from this page should help

http://www.davall.co.uk/dsg-power-transmission/catalogue/gears/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 07/05/2019 22:02:39

I will revert tomorrow in the daylight with measurements

Michael thanks for that link