Darren Wright

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Last night I decided to play around with a couple of the gear generation programs to see what I could create on the cnc.

The two I played with were an online version and a software version for windows.

The online version one is free and pretty nice to use, but only outputs in svg format, so for my needs I'd have to convert each file for use. This was pretty easy to do, though I found I needed to turn off a few options, like the gear guides as they also exported in the .svg file. To convert the .svg file, simply open it in Inkscape and save as an .eps (encapsulated post script) file and it will import into Vectric as a vector drawing file. I do like the way it allows more than 2 gears and the fact you can add and rpm and see the affects on the other gears.

http://geargenerator.com/

The other software version I played with was the one from Wood Gears (http://woodgears.ca/gear/) which had quite a few more gear varieties to play with, including a rack/pinion style. It has built in functions to export to .dxf and Sketchup, as well as several other image/data formats. After playing around with the free version for a while, I decided to pay the $26 for the program. It didn't have a feature to show the rpm, or what I'd rather see is the ratio in relation to the two gears, but may put in a feature request to see if he'll add that.

So this morning I spent a little time cutting out a couple of samples using a 1/8" end mill on some baltic birch. Here are the results:
2015-09-29 11.57.23.jpg

After breaking the tabs and filing them down flush I screwed the gears to my spoil board for a quick test. I had the little gear a little tight and it shows in the video below.
2015-09-29 12.06.04.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcAQEz_zO8o
 
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