Gear Hobs

[John Stevenson]

I was having a thunk the other night about making gear hobs, not cheesy ones but nice big stonking ones with 3/4" or 1" bore, 12 slots and machine relieved in HSS.
Read up on the commercial ones and also some articles from Model Engineer and Model Engineers Workshop.
Found some interesting points out and I may have found a way to do these easily on any centre lathe. Still neeeds a bit of work on the subject, I rang Ivan Law up, the guy who wrote the very good Gears and Gear Cutting book and he's also looking into it.
It looks like it's one of those things that's been around years but no one has latched onto it.

I regularly speak to Dr Giles Parkes on the phone at least once a week. He's the guy who did the hob relieving attachment in issue 56 or 57 of MEW.
Facinating guy, he's in his 80's but as bright as a button. He was one of the original engineers working on the Enigma decoding machines at Bletchley Park, or Station X in WWII.

John S.

[CCWKen]

Watch it! Ops, Ops, Ops. Dang! Another name fell and broke.

Well, Boyd called me today. He was asking me what kind of wheel I'd like to see this spring. I told him I liked 70's GTO style. So watch for the retro-look to make a comeback.

Almost forgot; Tommy Ivo called last week and asked me if he should do another Hemi build article. I said sure! Hemi is big this year.

[wierdscience]

John,did you see this?-
http://www.lathes.co.uk/hendey/page11.html


It is interesting to me becuase we have a 1945 vintage Hendey gearhead at work,I have also seen dedicated relieving lates go cheap at auction,last one went for $200,just didn't have the space for one.

[JCHannum]

Tommy Ivo did Buicks. TV Tommy Ivo and his twin engined Buick dragster.
Didn't he tear up the asphalt so bad he couldn't run?

[CCWKen]

Don't know about the asphalt. I heard the rear drag links broke and the 4th member tried to catch up to wheel speed. Nasty mess!

Forgot to mention: Tommy does Hemi's too.

[This message has been edited by CCWKen (edited 01-31-2004).]

[Evan]

Yeah, I was sitting in the bar at the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto having supper with Gary Nelson the director of Palladin, Gunsmoke, Black Hole, Noble House and others, discussing what cameraman to hire for his next flic, when Lou Gosset Jr. came over to shake my hand. Then his makeup artist, Gi Gi, tried to talk me into going upstairs with her, I declined. True story.

[JCHannum]

Is Tommy Ivo still around? If he is, he probably does do Hemi's.
All I remember about the twin engine thing is he had trouble hooking up. Bet he sure had some heavy duty gears in that sucker.
What were you saying John?

[wierdscience]

Geez!You guys are impressed by the most common of people Like I was telling Britney the otherday people just put too much emphasis on name dropping these days,I mean just because her and I made passionate love doesn't mean I'm going to tell everybody that I was Banging Britney Spears

[Evan]

Hey, no ****. It really is a true story. The Sutton Place is where Xerox used to put us up when in Toronto and is also the favorite place for all the actors to stay. Xerox wasn't shabby about accomodations.

[This message has been edited by Evan (edited 02-01-2004).]

[John Stevenson]

Sorry about the name dropping, different culture here and not aimed at trying to impress. If I was , tough s**t, I don't do PC.[ still using whale oil and trike here ]
What I was getting across was that I had got these two very knowledgable men interested enough for them to also look into the idea.

Both of these men are in their 80's and have a lifetime of experiance. Who's going to take over when they are gone.
Looking thru ME on authors names we have lost Edgar T Westbury, LBSC, George Thomas, Martin Evans, Prof Chaddock, Duplex, Sparey, Bradley and many more.
I don't see many regular names coming forward.

I'm proud to have known some of these men and learned from them, either in articles or from personal visits.
As I'm situated in the centre of the UK people often pop in for a cuppa and a visit, to drop stuff off or collect from someone elses previous visit.
I have a box of taps and dies and a Bridgeport slotting head on the floor at the moment awaiting collection from other folk.

As I say it's a different culture here, the UK is far smaller and it's more of a closed bunch. On the UK.recs.model.engineering news group, of the top 15 or so regular posters we all know each other either by email, phone or have met. If I have to travel on a job in the UK first thought is who do I know around there I can call in on and get a cuppa.
Last bit of unashamed name dropping, Dave Fenner the editor of MEW lives in Perth, just in Scotland. When he travels down south he has to pass within 3 miles of my shop [ I'm 3 miles off the M1 motorway ] and as it's about midway he'll pop in for a drink and a natter.
How many have had Neil pop in on a regular basis?

Anyway to get back on topic - Gear Hobs.
Yes Weird I have seen the Hendy attachment.
A lot of the top toolroom lathes had similar.
The article in issue 57 of MEW by Giles Parkes [ damn dropped that !! ] uses exactly the same method but Giles found out that even the low speed of the Myford was too fast for such a light lathe and had to slow the spindle down even further to about 10 rpm.
Possibly not a problem on larger lathes.
Holbrooks also had a relieving attachment:-
http://www.lathes.co.uk/holbrook/page9.html
but went one further by supplying a low speed drive, [ same page ]

John S.

PS. as an aside look at the bed stop on the next Holbrook page
http://www.lathes.co.uk/holbrook/page10.html
What a neat bit of kit this is.