Cutting Gears from Acrylic

[Joe Peacock]

I have done a search for gears and I have not found what I am looking for yet. I would like to cut two or three gears that mesh from 1/8" acrylic and have them different diameters.
Does anyone know of a "program" that will generate gears that will fit each other and output them in a format that I can get into Corel X3 and cut?
Thanks for the help!
Joe

[Tom Bull]

what is the use?

[Chris Hanson]

See if this works for your needs: http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

[Doug Griffith]

Here's a calculator I wrote for determining pitch diameters:
http://www.dogcollarlabor.com/smc/ratio_calculator.html

There are a few programs out there that do what you want but they don't come cheap. Here is a good place to start:
http://woodgears.ca/gear/index.html

[Doug Griffith]

See if this works for your needs: http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

You beat me Chris!

[Joe Peacock]

what is the use?

Tom,
I wanted to cut something neat with my new laser to show off to my friends and associates and I figured that a set of gears that mesh would be pretty good to do that with.
If you know of anything else that is pretty impressive to show off with I would appreciate help there too!
Joe

[Joe Peacock]

See if this works for your needs: http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

I saw that but I couldn't figure out how to get the gear that was generated into CorelDraw X3.
Any ideas?
Joe

[Tom Bull]

A really simple way to do "sort of" gears with corel would be the star tool. Located in the polygon tool. You could draw a regular star by holding down cntr as you draw a star, give it about 50 sides, F4 (to get it to fill your screen), press F10 to activate shape tool, grab a blue node and pull toward the edge of the star until the points look like cogs, and bingo a gear. Make sure snap to objects is on, draw a small circle to use for a center axle hole, click and drag it toward the center of the gear and it will snap to the center and you are good to go.
You could make one say 20% smaller and with 40 sides and it should mesh well enough, another one 20% larger and 60 sides to the star.
Attached is what I mean.

[Michael Wintermute]

Joe,
This may be more than you are willing to go through, but there is a good explanation of how to draw gears at:
http://www.cartertools.com/involute.html

IMHO That is a lot of work just to impress friends ... Ok, maybe just for the fun of it, Things are quiet here for now anyways.

Mike

[Lee DeRaud]

I saw that but I couldn't figure out how to get the gear that was generated into CorelDraw X3.

It looks like it exports HPGL (button below drawing) and I seem to recall Corel can import that.

[Keith Outten]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=109502

[David Harvey]

The easiest way to design your gears is to use the free software 'emachineshop'. It can be downloaded here...http://www.emachineshop.com/

After installed, run the program, select 'File/New/Gear' and enter all the pertinent data you want for the gear. Select 'OK' from the dialog and the gear is drawn for you.

Select File/Export and it will export the gear as a DXF file where you can then import it into Corel.

Simple, easy and cheap.

Here is an example of a gear box I designed several years ago using emachineshop to create the gears for me.

[Mike Christen]

I saw that but I couldn't figure out how to get the gear that was generated into CorelDraw X3.
Any ideas?
Joe

I gave it a try and it imports into x3 with no problem. Just save and import

[Joe Peacock]

Thanks to everybody for all of your help! I am constantly amazed by the generosity and expertise of the members of this forum.
Joe Peacock

[Kim Vellore]

The easiest way to design your gears is to use the free software 'emachineshop'. It can be downloaded here...http://www.emachineshop.com/

After installed, run the program, select 'File/New/Gear' and enter all the pertinent data you want for the gear. Select 'OK' from the dialog and the gear is drawn for you.

Select File/Export and it will export the gear as a DXF file where you can then import it into Corel.

Simple, easy and cheap.

Here is an example of a gear box I designed several years ago using emachineshop to create the gears for me.

Thanks David,
The emachineshop program is amazing, I just tried it and in seconds I was
having gears imported to corel.

Kim