[Lab] make a timing pulley

[aaron at ottawarobotics.org]

CamBam can generate timing gears for a regular 2.5D mill/router.
The problem with cutting it that way is that you don't get nice sharp
edges inside the teeth. I suppose you could do the first pass with a
larger cutting tool to quickly cut the outline and then switch to a
smaller tool to get better tooth definition. 

An A axis definitely
makes better teeth though. 

A tool like this :
http://svstuff.com/Gears/ does a nice job. Or
http://www.cad2gcode.com/pulley/ 

The better one is likely Gearotic
(http://gearotic.com/index.html) from the same guy that does Mach3 for
your CNC machine, but it possibly is overkill for what you need. 

If
you dig around there are some free plug-ins or g-code generators that
will do timing gears for free but I'd likely spend the $12 or $20 to get
one of the nicer ones from above. 

Aaron 

On Wed, 6 Jul 2011 09:47:40
-0400, Darcy Whyte wrote: 

> I'm just about to go to General Bearing
Service to pick up a timing pulley. Once I have it and I complete my
A-Axis for my mill I will be able to make pulleys. 
> Does anybody know
the exact shape of a timing pulley? I don't care about the flanges, just
the teeth. Perhaps I could try and make one with a 3-Axis mill? Is there
a code generator for that around? Or some shapes that will work?

  
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