# Soul of a new machine



## Ed Hume (Jan 3, 2008)

Well, thought you might enjoy seeing what I have been working on for a couple months - stainless steel bevel gears for a 3-truck scratch-built shay:




Regards,
Ed


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks nice Ed! I bought brass ones from Chicago gear for mine! You da' man!


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Ed, That is fantastic! I have always been in awe of anyone who can machine gears. I have done some machining but I have no idea how to do gears. It just seems like magic! What scale are you building? Looking forward to the rest of your project.


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## dwegmull (Jan 2, 2008)

Ed, 
This is a truly impressive start on your project. When you say scratch built, you mean it!


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## lvmosher (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice ! 
I read the book too.


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## Shaymaker (Feb 15, 2008)

Posted By placitassteam on 05 Sep 2009 09:17 PM 
Ed, That is fantastic! I have always been in awe of anyone who can machine gears. I have done some machining but I have no idea how to do gears. It just seems like magic! What scale are you building? Looking forward to the rest of your project. Your should try skew bevels for a Climax! >)

Mike


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice Ed. What kind of tooling are you using? Carbide or Cobalt?


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## Ed Hume (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks guys.

Winn, the scale is 20.3.

Mike, I guess you have not seen the photos of my 20.3 Climax on this forum or Flickr. That's where I learned how to make gears:

 



Dwight - this is following Kozo Hiraoka's techniques and making my own cutters from tool steel. First you make radius cutter to approximate the gear tooth curve, and then you use the radius cutters to make the tooth form cutter. 


The photos above are linked into Flickr if you want to see the machining details.


Regards,
Ed


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

Off to a great start. 

Did you think of making two so you can sell one?


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

this is following Kozo Hiraoka's techniques and making my own cutters from tool steel. First you make radius cutter to approximate the gear tooth curve, and then you use the radius cutters to make the tooth form cutter.Thanks Ed. I have Kozo's books and I'm somewhat familiar with his method. I'm surprised that you can cut stainless with high speed steel!!! Shows how much I know about machining stainless. In fact, I just ruined three cobalt drills trying to drill the stuff. I have so much to learn in that area.


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## Shaymaker (Feb 15, 2008)

Posted By Ed Hume on 06 Sep 2009 03:19 PM 

Mike, I guess you have not seen the photos of my 20.3 Climax on this forum or Flickr. That's where I learned how to make gears:


Ed, I seemed to have missed that. My remark, incidentally, was directed toward Winn Erdman, who was "in awe" of anyone who could make in his own workshop something which one would normally buy from a factory. Like you, I got my inspiration from Kozo but, as I had about 60 Climaxes to make - and 300+ pairs of gears - I modified my Taiwan mill for CNC operation so that I could cut all the teeth (or the gaps between them) in one operation.

Just recently, I've been scratchbuilding some timber bridges for our Club 0n30 layout. One of the members, who is a wizard at kit-bashing and assembling craftsman kits, remarked that he could never build anything from scratch. I told him that, as with making gears, it's simply a matter of research, deciding how you're going to tackle it, gathering together the tools, and getting on with it.

By the way, I'm in awe of you for tackling anything at all in stainless steel!

Mike


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## Dan Rowe (Mar 8, 2009)

Ed, 
Very nice gears. 
I discovered a big time saver on the web the other day for drawing gears see: http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html 
There is a HPGL down load feature that can be imported into most CAD programs. 
Dan


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## dennisintexas (Jun 24, 2009)

Ed Tracy Kidder will have words with you on your choice of titles! 

It is a good book.


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## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hi Ed, 

great to see another live steam Shay started. 
Next weekend, I'll continue my Shay while building the water tank and rear sand bunkers. 
The boiler drawings are ready for the boiler maker and maybe he can start construction next month. 

Keep the pics and progress log comming. I like any Shay progress in any scale  

Bye, Gerd


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## Ed Hume (Jan 3, 2008)

It is Happy Crankshaft Day and time for some Steam Engine Lager!

After 4 tries I succeeded with machining my Gauge 1 shay crankshaft from solid following Kozo Hiraoka's instructions in the New Shay book. I added a series of photos for the steps to the shay construction set on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/edhume...192042835/


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

JEWELRY!


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## xo18thfa (Jan 2, 2008)

Really sweet. What material? Did you use Kozo's method of the round jig on the ends of the shaft?


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## Ed Hume (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi Bob,

The finished part is 12L14 leaded steel. I started with 303 stainless but I ran out of material after my first two attempts. Yes, I followed Kozo's method closely including the ends that are turned down at the last steps. The photos on flickr show the machining sequence.

Ed


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

beautiful work Ed. Can't wait to see it run.


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