GearHeads Forum

Art:

So the only issue might be finding a company that will provide single lip engraving cutters with a 40 degree included angle? I'm sure there are companies out there who will make engraving cutters to order.

Alternatively I don't think most people care what standard pressure angles are use commercially. So if a 30 degree cutter can produce matching gears with a 15 degree pressure angle then most HSM'ers would be satisfied with using a stardard off the shelf cutter.

Phil:)

Edit: This opens up many possibilities with respect to the use of home made multi-tipped rotary cutters with a simple rack profile produced on a manual lathe/mill. Then you use it to make multiple passes, indexing the blank gear a fraction of a tooth on each pass, moving the rack profile cutter the corresponding fraction. Even I could write the code for that. Looks like I've got my own development project. Oops again! I already have the home made cutters, previously use for manual gear making using a different but not dissimilar process.

But a small diameter end-mill rotates at much higher rpm (say at least 10 and maybe 50 times) and has more than one cutting edge (say 2 flutes). So the number of facets per minute with and end-mill is order of magnitude 20 to 100 times that of a fly cutter.

Phil:)

PS: The flycutter does cut both faces at the same time. so 10 to 50?

PPS: Maybe not so simple, the fycutter is much stronger so DOC can be higher??