Interesting old gear construction

[Pherdie]

I had occasion to recently visit the Benedictine Abbey, Stift Melk, located outside Melk, Austria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melk_Abbey

Outside the abbey was a partial remnant of of an old gear with a frame of iron and wooden teeth. The wooden teeth were pinned to the metal frame and spaced by a wood layer over the frame. Interestingly enough, sufficient wear had occurred to give the wooden teeth an involute curve although the attached pictures don't really adequately show the wear pattern.Wooden components appeared to be Oaken.

[Paul Alciatore]

Fascinating! When you need to do a thing, you find a way. And easily maintainable, just replace the individual teeth. I wonder if anybody does that today. I mean, turbine blades are replaceable so why not gear teeth. Anybody know of any modern examples of replaceable teeth?

[sasquatch]

Now that is an interesting combination.

Thanks for posting this.

[john hobdeclipe]

I wonder what it was a part of.

[wbleeker]

I was in Amsterdam last week and my Dutch cousins took me to see some working wooden windmills. They have replaceable wooden gear teeth, when i get over the jetlag I will see how my photo's turned out and post them here.
Will

[sasquatch]

Years back i saw a water powered woolen mill, and down under it were gears with wooden teeth.
According to the owner/operator the teeth would last a long time as long as they had a bit of heavy grease dabbed on them regularly.

But Pherdies gear set is very different maybe someone here will be able to identfy the use.

[JoeFin]

I remember working in a feed mill in Petaluma quite a few years ago and being simply amazed by some of the 100 yr old Wooden Machines still in use

[browne92]

I wondered if the gear had broken, or was cut for display, but it looks like the frame was made from 2 identical halves and bolted together.

[TheAndroid]

It looks like the end grain is across the top of the tooth. Can that be right? I realize there is no load there, but I would think it would still split easily.

[Alan Smith]

Those are wooden cogs, hence cog wheel. They are quarter sawn for dimensional stability.