Poor Man's Dividing Head

Shawn said:

Hi Gus, I think you misunderstood Brock, he was saying you will be able to make lots of gears in no time. He was just using slang terminology.

Shawn

Edit: the DH looks awesome : )

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Your right Shawn just a turn of phrase. I was amazed at how easy gear cutting is.

I am sure you will prosper Gus.

Brock

Hopper said:

Looks like an interesting project.
Which of Harold's books is that? His milling book, or the workshop projects book?

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Hi Hopper,

The "Milling,A Complete Course was used a reference but I took short cut and substituted to suit my requirement and urgency. In fact ,I found all Harold's books to be very useful.

-a poor copy of Harold Hall's DH.

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Why do you say a poor copy? Interesting to see what Harold's comments are. He does stop in from time to time looks good to me.
Tin

Tin Falcon said:

Why do you say a poor copy? Interesting to see what Harold's comments are. He does stop in from time to time looks good to me.
Tin

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Hi Tin,

I have deviated from Harold Hall's drawings. Harold could hardly recognise this D.Head other the split clamps. Need to have a DH up and going quick and fast.
Used the band saw to slit column. Couldn't believe Gus can saw straight and tidy. A circular slit saw would take ages.:wall::wall:

Hopefully I can cut the pinion gear tomorrow.

Gus, don't feel bad about not understanding the Kentucky language. Some of it is rather obscure. I was raised among Kentuckians and consider myself fluent in their language, but sometimes hear a dialect that gives me problems.

I swear some of them speak a totally different language. Dad thought maybe it was Welch. He might be right.

Bill

OrangeAlpine said:

Gus, don't feel bad about not understanding the Kentucky language. Some of it is rather obscure. I was raised among Kentuckians and consider myself fluent in their language, but sometimes hear a dialect that gives me problems.

I swear some of them speak a totally different language. Dad thought maybe it was Welch. He might be right.

Bill

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Hi Bill,
I spent some time on and off at the Ingersoll-Rand Small Compressor plant,Campbellsville.Till today I failed to say "Thirteen" correctly in their dialect. Every one on the shop floor would laugh at poor Gus who can't get it right. But I got "Garbage" sound right. Thirteen not done yet. Pehaps I did not eat enough "Country ham".
But Country Ham makes me very thirsty. Was planning to fly to Louisville and drive over to C'ville to see some old friends and bosses. Trying to make a few more $$$$ to buy air tickets. Missed Crappy fishing.Missed the $6 per barrel country apples.Missed the yard sales.

Best Regards,

Gus Teng.

At long last,the D Head is 100% done. Index arm and pin done.Will teach myself to cut gears tomorrow.Hopefully the gear cutter is just like the endmill.Will use sample gear as dividing plate.
Will be success or disastrous castrophy.:wall:
See fotos.

Will cheat wee bit.Use aluminium to teat D.H. structural strength and
clamping force of 64mm chuck. Try hard not to take too ambitous cut depth and feed rate.

Happily,installed D.Head on to Mill to cut my very first pinion. No way.I need a tail stock centre to hold on to gear blank to secure and prevent same from bending and twisting out the 64mm chuck.
Start work to rush build a tail stock centre with whatever material available from leftovers or scrap bin.
By 6 pm tail stock 99% done except tidying up.
Tomorrow will ''D'' day-------setup to cut pinion. See fotos---------cheapy tail stock center.

gus said:

Happily,installed D.Head on to Mill to cut my very first pinion. No way.I need a tail stock centre to hold on to gear blank to secure and prevent same from bending and twisting out the 64mm chuck.
Start work to rush build a tail stock centre with whatever material available from leftovers or scrap bin.
By 6 pm tail stock 99% done except tidying up.
Tomorrow will ''D'' day-------setup to cut pinion. See fotos---------cheapy tail stock center.

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Very interesting to see this come together for you Gus! I was watching Youtube the other day and the guy was cutting his gear on a mandrel between centres. Might be one more thing you need to make...

rodw said:

Very interesting to see this come together for you Gus! I was watching Youtube the other day and the guy was cutting his gear on a mandrel between centres. Might be one more thing you need to make...

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Hi Rod,

Been practicing gear cutting. Second attempt was good and I have a perfect pinion gear done for "Webster" Going on to cut the Cam Gear.

SOS. SOS. I cannot post fotos. Is something wrong?

Gus,

You really do nice work for the limited space you have. I think you do a good job with your English skills as well. In my current job I work with people from all over the world. I find the best thing for me is to listen carefully and ask questions to clarify. I grew up in Kentucky near Fort Knox. My father is from Mississippi and my mother from Louisiana. What a combination of good food, Cajun and Country dishes.

Take care, "G"

There is also an excellent "poor mans" dividing head design in the June/July 2010 issue of Machinist Workshop magazine. It is called the "Modular Dividning Head" because various accessories can be added to it. A worm indexing module is featured in the Oct/Nov 2010 issue of the same magazine. I believe it is easier to build and more versatile than any other design but I am perhaps prejudiced as I designed it. It is shown here (complete with the worm indexing attachment) set up on a 7 x 12 mini lathe to cut a spur gear using a shop made flycutter.

gus said:

.... Mini Chuck bought while shopping in HongKong...

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Gus, That's great work, I like your style. KISS and get the job done! Could you try posting the pic of your DH gear cutting set up again? That would be interesting.

Do you remember where in HK you bought the 3-jaw chuck and rough cost? One like that might be handy if it's reasonably accurate...

Regards, RossG
radial1951
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Hi Gus,

I'm impressed by your dividing head. It has some interesting points in common with mine, although mine is bit too slender and I use my rotary table for most dividing work instead!

Regards

Neil

radial1951 said:

Gus, That's great work, I like your style. KISS and get the job done! Could you try posting the pic of your DH gear cutting set up again? That would be interesting.

Do you remember where in HK you bought the 3-jaw chuck and rough cost? One like that might be handy if it's reasonably accurate...

Regards, RossG
radial1951
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Hi Ross,

Bought it somewhere along Canton Street,Kowloon for S$60.
Concentricity not too bad. Best to have gear at Tail Stock Centre end as this would give best concentricity.


Regards,

Gus Teng.

Stub Mandrel said:

Hi Gus,

I'm impressed by your dividing head. It has some interesting points in common with mine, although mine is bit too slender and I use my rotary table for most dividing work instead!

Regards

Neil

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Hi Neil,

Plan to add on a worm& wheel and dividing plate to make DH capable of cutting bigger gear tooth range. Also planning to cut the worm inhouse. Japanese Worm and wheel cost we S$50 but worth the quality.
Been watching worms being cut in YouTube. Hope it is really that easy.
Now figuring out how to cut 40 tooth worm and best O.D.to arrive at 40 T.

Regards,

Gus.

ConductorX said:

Gus,

You really do nice work for the limited space you have. I think you do a good job with your English skills as well. In my current job I work with people from all over the world. I find the best thing for me is to listen carefully and ask questions to clarify. I grew up in Kentucky near Fort Knox. My father is from Mississippi and my mother from Louisiana. What a combination of good food, Cajun and Country dishes.

Take care, "G"

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Hi ConductorX,
Been to Fort Knox 1988 and was very impressed by the antique military equipment,weapons,tanks and helicopters etc etc.

Saddam Hussein's tank was very big but he lost the war and his life. Was acting as chaperon to a bunch of Chinese Engineers training at Ingersoll-Rand Campbellsvile Plant. Took them to Fort Knox.Oh.They were busy taking fotos and I guess this was "Spying". Been told,way back in the 1980s,they were vetted for suitabllity and loyalty to the "Party" for selection to go USA for training. They were told to look out for US/Taiwan spies,agents and be wary. Gus was suspected of being potential Taiwanese spy.Ha Ha. Twenty years later I was told sheepishly.Ha Ha.

My first two years with Ingersoll-Rand Singapore was murder. Had hard time
understanding my American Bosses and Aussie Bosses and they too with my Singlish written/spoken.Life been interesting.

The Chinese too had a hard time with my spoken Chinese which is heavily
accented with Spore Chinese accent. After thirty years with them,Gus got
questioned-------How come I speak with North Chinese Accent.Spent four weeks in the China AeroSpace Institute working on very high pressure air compressors. Have to speak like them thru the nose and curled tongues. Gus till today cannot shake off this accent. Ha Ha.

Spent time in India too. Working life with Ingersoll-Rand been interesting.Meeting many nationalities.

Regards,

Gus Teng.

Here are the fotos which I could not post earlier.At last my second spur gear since the very first cut 52 years ago.
The aluminium gear looks good and I hope it runs good too. The JapaneseBrass Gear is for comparison. Same will be used with "Webster" now named Webby.
Still have two weeks of work to complete "Webby".

gus said:

Hi Ross,
Bought it somewhere along Canton Street,Kowloon for S$60.
Concentricity not too bad. Best to have gear at Tail Stock Centre end as this would give best concentricity.
Regards,
Gus Teng.

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What a coincidence, last week I was 2 streets East of there in Shanghai St with a mate. We found a nice little engineering tool shop, a pleasant surprise for that area. My mate bought a couple of ER collets he needed to complete his set.

What great yarns you can tell about your working life. Very interesting.

Just thinking about the gears I have cut... I have read lots of books, M.E. magazines and various forums, but don't recall seeing climb milling mentioned. I have always got the best finish, especially on aluminium, by climb milling with a light cut, only a thou or two, for the final cut to size with a fine feed (and sharp cutter). I've cut quite a few gears and always semi-finish all teeth first, allow to cool if needed, then index and climb mill through every tooth space for the final size. It can also induce less vibration if the set up is not as rigid as it should be. Just a thought...

Regards, RossG
radial1951
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HI Gus,

I made my worm & wheel in two stages. First cut two matching worm gears one to use and the other one couple of thou oversize and in silver steel (drill rod). Cut some teeth in the silver steel one and harden & temper it to make a cutter.

Using a thin cutter (maybe a slitting saw) rough out the teeth in the worm wheel blank, at the helix angle. Now mount the worm gear blank so it can rotate freely and feed it into the cutter you made. This will take more pressure than you expect because the teeth on the cutter aren't relieved.

Tip - use free cutting (leaded) brass for the worm wheel otherwise you can end up with an extra tooth (don't ask how I know this).

For ordinary gears I cut in one pass with the cutter working normally, and then run back in the climb milling direction which puts the polish on them.

I use home made single point cutters.

Neil