I am planning to cut gears from 3/8" plywood or ABS plastic sheet. I designed the tooth shape so that I can use an 1/8" bit.
I am new to CNC and just got a pro plus so I am still finding my way around. I was going to order suitable carbide bits but to get going I tried a simple RotoZip spiral saw bit (the "Sabre-Cut" down-cut variety for about $1.20 in bulk).
That worked actually pretty well at moderate speed (1/8" cut depth and 30"/min) and they have a pretty long reach.
They sure won't last as long but is there any reason to spend more for a carbide bit and worry much more about breaking?
Thanks, JB
Roto-Zip Bits for Gears?
Moderators: al wolford, sbk, Bob, Kayvon
Re: Roto-Zip Bits for Gears?
JB,
What kind of gears are you cutting? I am using a pin router with a solid carbide 1/8" up-cut bit and cutting clock gears from 1/2, 3/8 and 1/4in Baltic Birch plywood. How do you load your gear pattern into your shark?
When cutting the 1 1/16 and 1 1/8" pinion gears, my fingers get real close to the cutters. Can you just scan a copy of your gear into your shark and press go? Any suggestion you or any one else can offer will be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Bruce
What kind of gears are you cutting? I am using a pin router with a solid carbide 1/8" up-cut bit and cutting clock gears from 1/2, 3/8 and 1/4in Baltic Birch plywood. How do you load your gear pattern into your shark?
When cutting the 1 1/16 and 1 1/8" pinion gears, my fingers get real close to the cutters. Can you just scan a copy of your gear into your shark and press go? Any suggestion you or any one else can offer will be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Bruce
-
JerryBurks
- Posts: 92
- Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:07 am
Re: Roto-Zip Bits for Gears?
Hello Bruce, in the meantime I got proper 1/8" carbide bits (from Centurion Tools) and they cut much better than the RotoZip. These are just too long and flex a lot. Obviously they don't last very long, either.
I will save the pack for the case that I need to reach down 2" at very low feed rate.
I designed the gears in a 3D CAD program with the goal of cutting them complete with 1/8" bits, i.e no tight inner corners. The tooth pattern is surely unconventional (not cycloid or involute) and not optimal from a mechanical perspective but meshes smoothly and is strong.
I exported the gear shape in Autocad .dwg 2D format (I belive .pdf would work as well) and loaded that into VCarve. Since it consists of a zillion open vectors you must use the Vcarve function to join them to closed traces but the whole transfer does not take more than a few minutes.
I will save the pack for the case that I need to reach down 2" at very low feed rate.
I designed the gears in a 3D CAD program with the goal of cutting them complete with 1/8" bits, i.e no tight inner corners. The tooth pattern is surely unconventional (not cycloid or involute) and not optimal from a mechanical perspective but meshes smoothly and is strong.
I exported the gear shape in Autocad .dwg 2D format (I belive .pdf would work as well) and loaded that into VCarve. Since it consists of a zillion open vectors you must use the Vcarve function to join them to closed traces but the whole transfer does not take more than a few minutes.