"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 4 Mar 2012 13:46:27 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:

"Stanley Schaefer" wrote in message
...
On Mar 2, 8:13 pm, "Bob La Londe" wrote:
The HF mini lathe hasn't been used since I got the slightly bigger much
older, and much better HF lathe. I wanted to use it the other day
though
because it has gear selectable forward and reverse carriage feed. The
I
remembered I stripped those little nylon gears. I am sure I can get a
hold
of HF customer service and get a part number for those gears if its not
in
my manual for the machine, but I was wondering if somebody knew of a
source
for metal replacements? I know Little Machine Shop was the threading
gear
set in metal, but I didn't see the rest of the gears for the machine.

My next thought was maybe to try and make some metal gears, but I have
never
done that before. Any suggestions on the approach for that? Best
alloy
for
reasonable wear?

LMS had ALL the gears plus extra pitches last I looked. And like the
man said, you need a weak link in the chain, otherwise things could
get more expensive than just a stripped gear. They are standard
metric module gears, guys were using ones scavanged from laser
printers and the like for oddball threads.

You must not have looked very hard:
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...523&category=1

They also have a spare parts kit with some of the other gears, a belt
and some fuses.

Stan

Well, I guess I need to look a little further than that link as well. It
doesn't include the 20 tooth reverse gear or 25 tooth forward gear.
Neither
does the spare parts kit found he

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...1223&category=

This set does, but it is the only one I could find that does.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...3446&category=

Its not a bad option if I used the mill more. 2 yards is a bit steep for
basically one gear though.

Ah... here we go:

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...3455&category=

and

http://littlemachineshop.com/product...p?critFast=25t

Thanks Stanley. I was all prepared to be ****y about your comment, but it
lead to a cheap solution without setting up to cut gears. Thank you. I
may
cut some gears anyway just for the experience, but...




you'd spend more on the involute cutter.

But this is a needed skill if you got time.

I either have the time or the money, but never both at once. Actually I was
looking at some of the lathe turned gear cutters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UBxNPbg0ls He talks a lot, but it's a good
example of what I was thinking of.

Maybe an oil hardening drill rod to make the cutter. I don't know, but this
little adventure got me reading all kinds of new stuff.