# Involute Router Bit?



## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

Does any one of a source for a router bit in the shape of an involute gear tooth?

Ie, the correct shape to cut a gear wheel?
They are freely available for metal milling, but can't seem to find any for a router.

thanks


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## mgmine (Jan 16, 2012)

Here is a similar discussion a while ago.
Using involute gear cutters in wood


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## rwbaker (Feb 25, 2010)

Is this a one time occurrence? because you can approximate the gear teeth with a quarter round (maybe able to stop here) and follow on with a 60 degree to trim the top 1/2 of each.

option is to find someone with a horizontal milling machine and the correct gear cutter.

last resort is to go to Whiteside for a specialty bit

Whiteside Machine Company
4506 Shook Road
Claremont, NC 28610

good luck - Baker


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

Gregg, I hope you are recovering nicely and improving each and every day. Depending on how "realistic" you want your involute teeth to be, and the size of said gear; you are_* most likely*_ going to be limited to making linear sections which can be crosscut into individual gears - if using a router is your tool choice. For a lot of applications, this is a scrollsaw job. If it will help, give me the particulars and I'll draw-it-up in AutoCAD and convert it into a .pdf file. You can print the .pdf and cut-it-out with scissors, adhere the pattern to your workpiece, and go-to-town. I have to do stuff like this quite often and I get my wife to convert the .pdf to .mtc file (MakeTheCut) format and feed it to her Cricut, which will make a very nice "bumper sticker" to be utilized as a template. She constantly has me making a myriad of projects for our grandchildren and great grandchildren. Warning: *WOODEN GEARS *are best made with plywood or MDF, because if made from dimensional lumber it will probably have some broken teeth along the woodgrain. Good Luck, Feel Better and let me know if I should draw-up something for you! 
P.S. You can also Google Mathias Wandel, who is a literal genius when it comes to stuff such as this.


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## neville9999 (Jul 22, 2010)

*Cutting Wooden Gears with a Router*

I have said elsewhere that next year I am going to make a jig to cut wooden ply gears with a Router, I regard cutting them with a scroll saw or drilling holes on a drill press and then using a bandsaw or scroll saw to finish the cut as being inacurate and also involves a lot of hand touchup work, and I am very confident that the jig will work effectivly, still as I am always interested in Wooden Gears anyway Otis, so thanks for the info. NGM


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## rwbaker (Feb 25, 2010)

left a post this morning, but I forgot about Woodworking for engineers - if anyone knows this man does.

good luck - baker


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

Thanks for all the help - and well wishes (and I'm feeling much better thank you)

I was doing a thought experiment (ie, drawing something up in inventor)to make a gear cutting machine
The idea was to make something akin to the "pantorouter" (possibly as an add-on to that machine) with a home-brew dividing head - load a blank piece of ply, dial in the teeth-count, and cut away.
Obviously, this would be much easier if I could obtain a single cutter to cut the shape of the gear tooth.
If I can't find a bit of the correct profile (or something approximately correct), then I will have to look at mounting the router conventionally (ie, plate down, bit axis vertical) with a straight bit and controlling the cutting path around each tooth with a template.


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

Neville, you are very welcome!
Gregg, I am glad you are feeling better. I'm not using Inventor (but I would love to upgade to it some day), but I am using my own customized version of AutoCADr2002. Years ago, I took some classes on AutoLisp and learned to make my own customizations to AutoCAD - thus far I've been able to do everything necessary (for me), except motion animation. I have been able to do the motion animation with a software called Alibre. I got Alibre because of a big project that required efiles with automation - which dictated SolidWorks or Alibre, I opted for Alibre - it was about $6,000 less expensive.


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## bigegg (Aug 20, 2011)

I've just worked out a *really* simple way of moving the end of a beam 
through the shape of an involute.
If I connect the end of the "involute generator" mechanism to the follower on a router pantograph, I can cut perfect gear teeth of any size I wish, simply by altering the scaling factor of the pantograph.
Now for a dividing head so I can pick how many teeth :.)


So I won't need the involute cutter.


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