In article 20050514235946.1464e64b.MyForeName@TheLast4CharsO fMySurname.net,
Tim Angus wrote:
How might I manufacture something like this?:

http://a.ngus.net/internal_splines.jpg

I own a small CNC mill and a lathe, but I don't think they're going to
help me very much. I've read a little about broaches, is this where I
should concentrate my effort?

How many do you need? And what other tools do you have? A CNC
mill isn't much help for this. A lathe could be used to emulate a
shaper, if the number of splines matches a sub-multiple of the number of
teeth on the bull gear, but it would be tedious.

The way which I would make one or two, or a few is with an index
head on a shaper, since the length is small relative to the diameter.

In an ideal world, some nice fellow would extrude lengths of this and I
could buy it for pennies. Am I in luck? Something with an OD of about an
inch would be ideal.

Does the number of splines matter? What about the shape? Your
image looks like square splines, but the most common ones are about the
shape of gear teeth. You might even be able to find internal tooth
gears.

Good Luck,
DoN.

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