Gears

[robcas631]

My mini lathe came equipt with plastic gears. I have had no problems with them. I can get steel gears. Is there a difference in performance?

 

[romartin]

I can only draw on my experience as a home modeller. Over 25 years ago my Prazimat lathe was delivered with a set of gears in cast iron. Checking the delivery against the list given in the user manual I found that several gears were missing so I made appropriate noises and the supplier duly supplied me with the missing gears which however were not in CI but mostly plastic (nylon maybe?) with a couple in a sort of fibrous synthetic material. More appropriate noises but the supplier said that he had no way of getting CI gears and he was sure that the ones he'd given me would be fine. He was right. I use the gears often and have never noticed any difference, either in efficiency or in tooth wear, between the CI gears and the others. I guess the force the teeth must transmit is small. Since this tangential force is inversely proportional to the radius, I would expect the smaller gears to suffer more so keep an eye on them.

If I were you I'd try to live with the plastic gears until you see a good reason to change them. Bear in mind that, as testified by my name, I have 25% scottish blood in my veins.

 

[Swifty]

Ian, the fibrous synthetic material will most likely be fabric bakelite. An old style material, but still in use today. Made from resin with fabric or paper layers. I recall seeing some fairly large gears made from this.

Paul.

 

[robcas631]

I believe the gears I have are Nylon or a similar material. They haved worked fine for the last 7 years.

Gent's, Thank you for helping!

 

[Art K]

Hi, If I recall my old 140 series Volvo had those fibre gears as the cam timing gear and that was good for 100,000 miles and you should change it fast if you pass 100,000 on the cam gear.

Art