Anyone know of a company that will do one time protype gears. I need there phone # or website PLEASE!! thanks chris

give sany cone a call 805-239-2663 if he can't or won't do it i quarntee he will know who can

im working on a ring and pinion for a very common dana axle that has tons of potential with a high grade alloy r&p:roxy: :roxy: :roxy:

Originally posted by techguru73
im working on a ring and pinion for a very common dana axle that has tons of potential with a high grade alloy r&p:roxy: :roxy: :roxy:

There is a guy in Kentucky or Tennesse I can't remember, that builds them but the price is very high like around $1200-$1500. Why not talk to Richmond or U.S. Gear.

I manage the tooling at an automotive transmission manufacturing facility in south east Michigan. I purchase tooling from all of the major gear tooling companies and some not so major. Are you just looking for a one off set of gears to do testing with? If so you don't want to go to a company like Gleason. You would be better off working with a small "alley" shop to start with. These companies do one off runs of gears all of time at reasonable prices. The helical gears of a r/p would need to be hobbed. Do you have all of the engineering figured out such as involute, lead and runout? I assume that since you are looking at material properties you will be using an existing design. Send me an email tmarkel@me-llc.com if you would like me to talk to some of my contacts.

Originally posted by blazbrnc
I manage the tooling at an automotive transmission manufacturing facility in south east Michigan. I purchase tooling from all of the major gear tooling companies and some not so major. Are you just looking for a one off set of gears to do testing with? If so you don't want to go to a company like Gleason. You would be better off working with a small "alley" shop to start with. These companies do one off runs of gears all of time at reasonable prices. The helical gears of a r/p would need to be hobbed. Do you have all of the engineering figured out such as involute, lead and runout? I assume that since you are looking at material properties you will be using an existing design. Send me an email tmarkel@me-llc.com if you would like me to talk to some of my contacts.

It takes a special machine to cut the ring gears. A normal hob will not work. He needs a Gleason type setup. This is what you need. Hell why not buy the machine and the POR members can all use it. :smokin: http://www.cadillacmachinery.com/cgi-bin/cadmake.pl?bevel=3978

Gleason is simply the manufacturer of the machine that the company you referred to uses. I would like to know what is "special" about a Gleason machine as opposed to a Star or Mitsubishi hobber. When you say special hob, are you referring to a tool that has the teeth situated in order to cut a helical gear as opposed to a spur (straight teeth) type gear?

Try Birmingham Gear in Alabama. They are making our gearbox and gears for our mini baja car. I dont know the number, but you can look 'em up.

Originally posted by blazbrnc
Gleason is simply the manufacturer of the machine that the company you referred to uses. I would like to know what is "special" about a Gleason machine as opposed to a Star or Mitsubishi hobber. When you say special hob, are you referring to a tool that has the teeth situated in order to cut a helical gear as opposed to a spur (straight teeth) type gear?

He wants to build a ring and pinion and not a gear that will go into a tranny. You will need a Bevel Gear Cutting machine or a Hypoid Generator. Yes Gleason is a Company that makes them and the most popular in the USA. Can you show me a Mitsubishi that cuts ring and pinions and regular straight cut gears.

I realize that he is trying to produce a ring and pinion. Bevel gears have intersecting axis' whereas hypoid gears have scew axis' (not parallel). I don't want to get away from the original question. You don't need to spend $1000+ on a one off ring and pinion set. There are small shops that can produce something like this for far less. Hell, a form mill would probably work. All I'm saying is I've have personally seen shops produce far more complex gear geometries than what is involved with a r/p and there isn't a Gleason machine in site. As for the same machine being able to produce both a ring and pinion and a bevel gear? In a production environment with specialized equipment that isn't feasible. But, with a generic hobbing machine designed for a broad range of operations, it's simple. Single row milling cutter in place of screw type hob, hold workpiece still while machining, you have a bevel gear. Not the best way to produce external bevel gears (pot broaching would be better) but it works.

Sorry that we got off topic. Yes you can make a bevel gear on a hob or even a mill but can you make a spiral bevel gear? I don't think so but I am open for suggestions. Also my brother and I rebuilt a Kessle(sp?) Rear end. The car was built in the 1930's and the rearend was bad. So the customer looked all over the country to find someone to make a ring and pinion for it. He could only find one guy and he was in Kentucky or Tennessee and they wanted $1200 for it. So if anyone can build them why did he have so many problems tring to find one? There was article in this past summers Popular Mechanics Magizine that talked about Jay Leno and his cars and the Machinist foundation he started. Why he started this foundation was because one of his cars needed a ring and pinion for it. Jay Leno search the country to find someone to build this ring gear and nobody could do it. He was very discouraged because nobody know how to machine like they use to and build things like they use to. To make a long story short he found a guy in Chicago that was in his 70's or 80's that still had a machine to make this gear. One last thing we do machine work for a Company called High Mountain Classics in Berthhood, Colorado. He rebuilds Bugatti cars and he has to go to Finland to get a one off Ring and Pinion gear sets. If you know of a company that can make one off I would love to have there number to for future reference. Thanks

Donovan and blazbrnc....
Good info so far thanks for the help. Surley someone knows of someone who can do this come AWN! this is going to be awesome.:)

Originally posted by techguru73
Donovan and blazbrnc....
Good info so far thanks for the help. Surley someone knows of someone who can do this come AWN! this is going to be awesome.:)

I will get you thoughs phone#'s Monday or Tuesday for you.

Tech-If Donovan can't help you out send me an email and I'll see what I can do.

Donovan- Bevel spiral gear is an oxy-moron. Anyways it's nice to talk to someone who is interested in the manufacture and design of gears. The examples you bring up (PM, Leno) are cool, but if Tech is just looking for a ring and pinion for a d44 and not a very rare, has to be made exactly the same or else this resto won't be "correct" he shouldn't have to spent that kinda coin. You have to remember, I live in Detroit, a lot of the old manual (non CNC) machinery is still around being used for this sort of thing. The one thing that is killing this type of thing is the fact that all of the "old timers" are dying off. You know the ones I'm talking about, never attended high school but they know mathmatical calculations like the back of their hand.

BLAZBNRC...

Yes I am very interested in your info and will email you about it, but if you don't care could you post it so anyone else out there that has ideas can get a hold of these people as well. If you don't I understand and will email you diectly.

Thanks chris:smokin:

Not sure who cuts his gears, but O'Brien's 4 Wheels West makes gears for transfer cases - yeh I know way different from R/P.
Anyhow, the owner, Jack O'brien has a bad case of "smart guy" when it comes to gears and metal stuff. Great guy, easy to talk to and likely could steer you in the right direction or give you tips about how to make your idea even better!

He's in Northern California at (916) 773-3278
might be at: jack@unlimited.net too.

I got the phone # for you on thoses gears. There is a sales office in Charlotte NC and it is ATA Gears and the number is 704-948-7200. Tell them that you got there number from Jim Stranberg from High Mountain Classics in Berthoud, CO. I hope that they can help you out

thanks donovan.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11:roxy:

You could try and find a machine shop with a 5 axis machining center. I'm most certain that one of these machines could do the trick for you. After programming time and machine time you might stay under $1000, but I doubt it.

Easy

Originally posted by blazbrnc
Tech-If Donovan can't help you out send me an email and I'll see what I can do.

Donovan- Bevel spiral gear is an oxy-moron. Anyways it's nice to talk to someone who is interested in the manufacture and design of gears. The examples you bring up (PM, Leno) are cool, but if Tech is just looking for a ring and pinion for a d44 and not a very rare, has to be made exactly the same or else this resto won't be "correct" he shouldn't have to spent that kinda coin. You have to remember, I live in Detroit, a lot of the old manual (non CNC) machinery is still around being used for this sort of thing. The one thing that is killing this type of thing is the fact that all of the "old timers" are dying off. You know the ones I'm talking about, never attended high school but they know mathmatical calculations like the back of their hand.

Tech- Here is there website for ATA Gears. http://www.ata-gears.fi/


Blazbrnc- Here is the machines that I was talking about that cut the gears.http://www.ata-gears.fi/machining.htm and also look at the grinding section.

Donovan- Yes, those are some sweet machines. That is a very tough application for the inserts that are in the pocketed cutter. Those things have put many insert saleman's kids through school. I was at American Axle recently and was checking them out. Unbelievable. Anyways, I was thinking of more of an oldschool manual machine for a one off set of gears. Hopefully Tech will keep us informed of whether or not he has any success.

Originally posted by blazbrnc
Donovan- Yes, those are some sweet machines. That is a very tough application for the inserts that are in the pocketed cutter. Those things have put many insert saleman's kids through school. I was at American Axle recently and was checking them out. Unbelievable. Anyways, I was thinking of more of an oldschool manual machine for a one off set of gears. Hopefully Tech will keep us informed of whether or not he has any success.

I hope that he does keep us informed on the gears he is looking at. If I ever get back east I would love come and see your gear shop?

I don't have a gear shop. The company I work for manages the cutting tools for the big three's manufacturing plants. Because of this, I have a lot of contacts in the cutting tool business. If your ever around, look me up.