# Template to Cut Gear Teeth on Plywood?



## kolias (Dec 26, 2008)

I’m making a wooden clock and of course I will have tons of gear teeth to cut which I never done before. The gears size which all will be made from 1/4” or 1/2” plywood vary from 8” to 1” OD. 

I will have a pattern for each gear which I will glue to my plywood and have no problem rough cutting the teeth with my bandsaw / router / sander but I can see a problem when the time comes to do the trimming of each tooth to achieve the right curve and make them all identical (some teeth are straight and some have a slight curve).

Has anyone developed some kind of a template for this kind of work or can suggest a way to achieve good results?


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

scroll saw for machine...
rough cut and use an Olson plain end scroll saw file #42100 for finessing and clean up...
fret saw for by hand...
make the teeth as inserts...

do you have a lathe???

find - wood gear cutting by Ron Walters
YT is ate up w/ videos on this...


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## kolias (Dec 26, 2008)

As mentioned, I have no problem cutting the teeth.

I’m looking for a way to have the teeth identical after the rough cut like you would have done if you were using a CNC. I have an idea of using a template and use my router to follow the template to trim each tooth so all teeth will be identical. But this is just an idea right now and working to see how I can implement this idea.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

can you find steel gears to use as templates???


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

these links might foster ideas...
an indexer will be the most valuable tool...

*https://www.star-su.com/cutting-tools/gear-cutting-tools/
https://www.cnclathing.com/guide/ge...terials-tools-what-is-gear-cutting-cnclathing
https://capitalgeartools.com/milling-cutters/*


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

There is an add-on to Fusion 360 that will generate gears for you. Works pretty good.

Here are some of the ones I've cut using F360 for the CAD/CAM and cut on my CNC - 








David


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

kolias said:


> As mentioned, I have no problem cutting the teeth.
> 
> I’m looking for a way to have the teeth identical after the rough cut like you would have done if you were using a CNC. I have an idea of using a template and use my router to follow the template to trim each tooth so all teeth will be identical. But this is just an idea right now and working to see how I can implement this idea.


That's how I do my stuff. Use 1/2" plywood, spend time, make one of whatever perfect. Then glue that one onto a piece of 1/2" plywood, rout it. That give me a 1" thick master - easier to hold on to. I drill pilot holes in the master, use those and tack the master to the rough cut piece, rout, and have a finished piece. Repeat until you have all of those particular pieces you want. Repeat for each different size or pattern. Works for me.


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## TWheels (May 26, 2006)

https://www.woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html 
The number of teeth is variable and one can even create templates for rack and pinion systems.


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## kolias (Dec 26, 2008)

Thank you all for the ideas, now it’s time for me to use what I learned and along with my ideas try to find out the best way to cut my first gear. Obviously I will have to experiment on some scraps first and I will post the results


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## Nickp (Dec 4, 2012)

kolias said:


> Thank you all for the ideas, now it’s time for me to use what I learned and along with my ideas try to find out the best way to cut my first gear. Obviously I will have to experiment on some scraps first and I will post the results




Here's a technique for using a table saw...just another option...but it seems to add the rounded edge for matching gear teeth...






Good luck


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## kolias (Dec 26, 2008)

Another good idea Nick, thanks


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Tom; thanks for that link...good stuff in there!


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## Danman1957 (Mar 14, 2009)

Hi Nicolas,
This is the first time I see a post from you. I live not far from Montreal. For the gears I am surprised no one mentioned Mathias Wandel !!! he is pretty good at this kinda stuff and has many videos on YouTube and Iif you Google his name you can be entertained for hours.

Have fun 

Dan


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## kolias (Dec 26, 2008)

Hey Dan, its true I haven’t been very active on this forum but I was back in 2008 when I first subscribed but then I switched to CNC making and I got involved. I live in the West Island. I do know Mathias, a very knowledgeable guy and appreciate his work and videos.

Following my search for a template to make wood gears, I found one YT video about it but it was too complicated to make and use that template and so I decided to do what most folks use, a combination of band saw, scroll saw, sander and...patience.


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## bfblack (May 2, 2012)

That was an amazing video on cutting gears on the table saw. I am still having trouble understanding that the last tooth does not end up being a partial tooth because of cumulative errors. It is hard to argue with success.


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