Gear Generator

Sort of model engineering. I came across this site:

**LINK**

For a $2 Paypal payment you get 24 hours to download as many gears in .dxf format as you need.

Once you have the .dxf files you can then scale them up as you wish. I upscaled these in CUT2D and then had the KX1 cut them out. This is a set for a toy for my Grandson -

Not an unreasonable price at all ... but I think the payment model must be a recent initiative.

I don’t recall ever seeing that pop-up before.

MichaelG.

Bit of cheek really as FreeCad has a gear function and it's ....free. But probably thousands of modellers working in wood and having access to a router will go for it and suddenly he has a new BMW.

"He" will need the extra income if he has a BMW

Thanks for the tip on Freecad, just downloading now.

Steve

F360 will also do them for free and you can go straight to their CAM to spit out the code for your KX1 so no need to play about with DXF files

I use this one by Doctor Rainer Hessmer that generates a free DXF that is easily edited by most CAd programs.

hessmer.org/gears/InvoluteSpurGearBuilder.html

The two-button method can also be used to draw surprisingly accurate gears in CAD. Use two circles to create a 'tooth space, then repeat it around your circle.

Neil

F360 is pretty expensive - Although I have an Autodesk Eagle licence, which it claims entitles me to F360 free as well, it wants confirmation I'm a student at an approved college? I'm clearly going down the wrong path of internet links...

How long does it take (devoted hours) to get reasonably proficient at producing simple 3D models in F360? I want to be able to (as an example) machine camshafts on my KX1 using a rotary table as the fourth axis and engrave labels round the circumference of a round bar.

Regards

Steve

F360 is free for hobby users.

As I have had Alibre for a number of years I still mostly draw in that but do a bit in F360 though really use it for the free CAM. If you watch Lars set of 5 or 6 beginners videos you should be able to get up and running. He also has a beginners CAM series

They don't make it obvious do they! Try this page, Personal Use 1 year. Next year they'll ask you renew it, still free for personal use. (How long it will stay free for personal use will last is unknown, but at the moment there is no intention to charge for it. I think the game is to establish lots of trained users who will lean on employers to get them the commercial version. Might work - it's far more expensive to train people than buy software.)

Fusion 360 is a full-throttle Mechanical 3D CAD/CAM package. It's capable rather than simple, and isn't for casual dipping in and out. With someone to explain and the right tutorials, fairly quick to get into creating simple objects, say a day or two, unless one gets lost in the details, which is easy to do.

It's a bit like learning to ride a bike. Unfortunately, chaps experienced in other systems, including Drawing Board technique, often have severe difficulty unlearning old habits with 3D CAD. Compared with 2D design, 3D is 'upside down' and new boys will fail until they 'get it'.

I wouldn't get F360 just to draw a few gears.

Dave

Rush Gears offer a free service to download standard gears or design your own. Drawings can be downloaded in a number of different CAD formats including 3D models.

They also have other online services and also manufacture the gears if rrequired but they are in the USA.

**LINK**

Paul.

But do note that Rush Gears only provide representative tooth forms in their drawings unless you are prepared to enter into discussion with them.

If cutting it flat on the CNC as Steve looks to be then it is better to use something that allows you to enter the root fillet radius so you can set that to just over the size of cutter being used, saves getting a large cutter engagement that causes chatter or worse.

F360 will also import many stock parts from the likes of McMaster Carr.

I've downloaded a gear from Rush and one from Dr Hessmer's page. I'll print them side by side to compare.

Neil

(In Cura they look identical, the RUsh one allowed me to create the hub as part of the design, I had to add it manually to the other, which meant some fiddly alignment as Alibre wouldn't let me add constraints based on the DXF for some reason).

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 25/06/2020 13:22:17

Printed gears, Hesser on the left, Rush on the right. dIffernces are negligible, a matching pinion doesn't seem to quite bottom out on the Hesser gear so its teeth may be slightly more full. Both perfectly usable and they run together nicely.

Neil

P.S. for Alibre Atom users:

Open a 2D DXF and it will open as a drawing. You have to 'edit' the part you want, select it and press <ctrl-C> (there isn't a copy shortcut).

Create a new part, select activate 2D sketch and you shoudl be able to paste (ctrl-V) the part in, move it around and delete any unwanted bits. You can't do as much to it as a normal object, but you can extrude it and then use it as a sketch within your part if you need to add or subtract anything (I added a boss and a smaller bore).

The F360 Spur gear Add-in allows selection of:- DP or MOD form, Pressure Angle 14.5, 20, 25 or custom, your selection of DP or MOD value, Number of teeth, backlash value, root fillet radius, gear thickness and hole diameter. It computes the pitch diameter for you.

Thanks Dave.

I've been using Eagle and that's full on too, but just about got that sorted. I'm struggling at the minute to move from 2D (Vectric Cut2D which is dead simple) to 3D packages.

Steve