Made a gear for my crusher

[Homercidal]

I built a crusher a while back and for the first several batches it worked great. After a while, though, the grain stopped being picked up by the knurling and the idle roller would not turn, and the grain would just sit between the rollers while the drive roller spun.

I decided to finally get gear to connect the two rollers. After finding gears to be a bit more than I really wanted to pay, I decided to build my own. I did a bit of light reading and drew a pair up in Solidworks.

I gave the parasolid file to a guy who used it for training another guy in Mastercam. Then they cut the gear out on the Wire EDM machine between jobs.

Here is the first gear:

Still have to drill for the set screw and still waiting for the second one to get cut. :rockin:

 

[Hang Glider]

Sweet - goes on the outside? cutting the rollers down? re-rigging the frame to fit?


can I order two? (3/8" dia for Barley Crusher...)

 

[AnOldUR]

After finding gears to be a bit more than I really wanted to pay, I decided to build my own.

So, Solidworks is what, $3000-$5000 depending on the add-ons? Mastercam is about the same. Programming time and a CNC Wire EDM. That's good for $100-$200 per hour. All so you don't have to buy a $30 gear?

Admit it. You're like me and just like to play with expensive toys!

Really nice job. Just not buying the excuse.

 

[Homercidal]

So, Solidworks is what, $3000-$5000 depending on the add-ons? Mastercam is about the same. Programming time and a CNC Wire EDM. That's good for $100-$200 per hour. All so you don't have to buy a $30 gear?

Admit it. You're like me and just like to play with expensive toys!

Really nice job. Just not buying the excuse.

I'll admit that I work in a machine shop, and have a legitimate COPY of Solidworks that I can use. So I model up a gear, and have one of the mold design guys use that model to train the guy on the Wire EDM machine on how to use Mastercam.

So, by using free scrap piece of steel and my lunch hour, I can create a gear virtually and have it machined on company time without guilt.

And yes, I could buy 2x $30 gears, but that is much more than I HAVE to spend, and I can build it to fit the odd shaft size on my rollers (Because I am no expert on using a lathe and they are not standard sizes...)