Blacksmith Forge Blower: Machining a New Spur Gear from a Rough Casting 

I used to think machine shops charged a great deal for what I saw as "little jobs" because the parts were relatively small. You have shown how much hand work and operations are needed even for "little jobs" not to mention the capital invested in machinery and tooling. Thank you for the education

Can't beat a good QC officer in the shop. 🐈👍

Cutting gears is always so satisfying to watch, I don't know why. It's also always a good video when Ginger decides to pay a visit.

Happy whatever day it is!!😊⚙️🛠🥜👍👍👍👍✌️

It's always a pleasure to watch gears being machined manually!

55 years ago, I had an orange cat that had to stick its nose into everything that I was working on. I called him "Der Inspector". You gave me a chuckle. Good Luck, Rick

I never get tired of seeing castings being finished. Magic.

Seemed to be running much truer before you flipped it. Maybe should have done a cleanup on the outer perimeter before flipping it so it would run much truer after flipping....whether necessary or not it would have been a great "teaching moment"! Nice work in any case Keith!

The finished product had to be very rewarding. If I had made it, I would display it on the fridge door for my parents to also be proud of. :-)

When you start with a rough casting nothing is true, so the question is what to use as a reference when putting it in the four jaw chuck. I have found I got the best result by getting the inside rim and the spokes running as true as possible, then boring the centre and machining the rim to suit. The reason being that the inner rim and spokes are the areas which are not machined and if they wobble when the finished part rotates it looks bad.

Another outstanding job Keith. The casting was a very nice piece. The grade of the cast iron looked very good. Windy Hill is certainly the place to go for quality castings. This whole process was a nice job start to finish. Thanks for sharing. Have a great week.

Another triumph from a highly skilled artist. Thank you for sharing Keith.

Man you have got this stuff down. Its not even a challenge or is it exciting for you anymore! All that equipment acquisition and refurb/resto is really paying off.. This shop has capability that rivals any other home shop I bet. And most professional ones. Its not just the machines but the operator and experience. Great channel!

It is amazing to see that transformation, and the bigger understanding that all of the gears that made modern civilization were made this way at one time.

That horizontal arbor, it may not be bent the spacers may not be truly square, they will induce a bend, if that helps any. I have been caught out before

Great video once again, Keith. You've knocked out in one episode a replacement gear in the same time it takes someone else to drill and tap two holes.

Good job, Ginger.

I agree with many of your commenters, I don't read them all. Your work is important for the general instruction, at the same time Thanks for the video!

I always love it when you get back around to the beginning and the teeth line up. It sure is sickening when they don't! lol

Thank you...enjoyed as usual.

Lil' late but I wish you and your family Happy New Year. Greetings from Germany

Great work. I enjoy watching the dividing head in action…,

Good job Keith

You have a knack of putting up videos at times when there’s a dearth of good content on RU-vid. So thanks Keith. 👍

Looking good Keith👍 hopefully 2024 is full of prosperity for you and your family 🎉 thanks as always for taking time to present such great quality videos. Kind regards A keen subscriber from across the pond 😊

Nicely done, Keith. Ir's a pleasure to watch an expert display his expertise.

Thanks for sharing.

I really enjoy seeing the machining of castings into a final part. Especially a gear!!

I love watching gear cutting! It’s fundamental to machinist work!

You sir are very talented.

excellent video keith thank you!

Gear cutting is always satisfying to do and watch, the end result always impresses me. Thanks for your videos, they are a good education resource.

Nice work

16:15 the bushing in the helper arm is also a bit worn out. You can see the oil come in and come out at the 10 hour position, but very likely, it's probably best to leave it be on account of the arbor being slightly out of true. I've had it in the past where i've fixed a bushing and that got things way, way worse.

A great video. A nice complex project started and completed in a single episode. Thank you!

Great content, Keith. Interesting to put a face to the name after all these years. I used to contribute to OWWM many years ago. And was part of the first "Ruckering" of a machine that made its way to you probably more than 15 years ago. I still have a few totes with musty old machinery catalogs and such.

Came up good

Thank you Keith. Another great production as always!

You never cease to amaze me. Well done 👏

Good morning Keith. Your videos are always a great start to the week. Thanks for posting.

Ginger quality assurance, passed! :)

The gear tooth cutter is cutting on all teeth, just some are cutting deeper than others. Basically a progressive cutter. The end result is the longest tooth. Would love to have an indexer. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Keith!

Hi Kieth, If you cut the cast iron in the lathe in reverse the chips will have more of a tendency to go down into the catch pan

Nice work 👍

tell your cat I said pspspsps

Thank you Keith!

Great video thanks for sharing

thank you Keith

Very nice work. Enjoyed it very much. Thanks Keith.

Another satisfying video. Thank you.

I Love Broaching! ❤

Know wonder machine work is so expensive with all the cat scans done on everything

It isn't always the arbor with runout. It seems like the cutters and slitting saw blades are not round. I don't know if they do it intentionally or not. I've just noticed that the things that have been resharpened don't have that runout anymore and all of the teeth seem to cut. They don't have that cyclic sound. Perhaps it's designed into new cutters so it does most of the cutting in one area so it takes less power to turn or doesn't build up as much heat?

Turn the tool upside down and,run the spindle in reverse.That will drive the chips down so, you won’t need a shield to keep the chips from flying in your face

Thanks Keith. Amazing.

Great to the point video. Watching the repetitive steps you can see why some smart machinists invented CNC.

Again, you bang right through it as if it’s something that you do on a daily basis. But……one wrong step in the whole process and it is back to Windy Hill for another casting. The number of set ups, the off camera work, all the math and research…….those of us who know, understand!😂. Those who do not know…..😢. Keep coming back!😊. And Keith, you are looking great! Apparently you are feeling same

Thank you for sharing.👍

Always love you videos. Thank you

cool!

nice closeup teeth cutting!!

NICE JOB!

Most excellent.

👍🏻. Keith glad you are well! Your weight loss does you well! Wish I could lose mine as well! Give the shop inspectors a per and scratch for m. And any info on how Mike is doing ???? Sad to not see any postings? Seems like he was doing well ? Last posting I saw was of his building remolding etc? Tell him hello for me when you talk with him! Hope all goes well for all this year, if we can survive the evil attack of our own government…. !

I'm not sure how you manage to finish these projects with the constant supervision and inspectors. They seem like a tough boss to satisfy! Ginger never brings donuts in for a morale booster either!

Keith, Thank You for an informative video. As my shop slowly grows, I have some of the tools you have, but will never have the equal of your huge collection. I have wanted to be able to create gears and have the gear tooth cutters, the indexer, a lathe, and a Bridgeport vertical mill. Is it possible to use the vertical mill to drive the tooth cutter? If so, how should it be set up? I have recently acquired a small South Bend shaper if that is possible to use for cutting gear teeth. As an aside, I have been involved in beginning blacksmithing for about 20 years and have built and restored a few coal fired forges. Thanks for your encouragement as provided by these videos. I hope you have a totally healthy year in 2024! I have decided that having good health is by far the most important thing in life. Best Wishes!!

Ginger wants to make sure everything is Purrfect.

@ 0:45 Mr. Rucker, yours must be the only machine shop with a cat-scan.

Nice...

Love your videos Keith! Thank you for sharing 🙏🏻 Do you share the 3D printer files somewhere?

Shop videos are always better with shop cats!

Again, good machining, but why can one not tram the gear-cutter, to cut perfectly concentric ? I suppose there are clearances to compensate, before thightening up the whole assembly. I do not think the problem lies in a crooked axle, but just clearances.

seems like a nice casting, nothing worse than those hard nodules or whatever they are called

Reading the title realising I'm not browsing in private mode 😬

I have to salute you. Given the sounds and what we saw when you chamfered the edges of the OD, it appears that NOTHING was square and true. I'd have guessed that would hardly be possible but you managed somehow. Since some people are watching this to learn, here's a better way to approach the issue. First, start with a FOUR JAW chuck. You ended up with one anyway, why not start with one? Mount the workpiece then fiddle around to get it running as true as possible.Next machine one inner face then drill and ream. Clean up the outer face only until it runs true, remove the workpiece and flip it to machine the other inner face. NOW mount on the arbor and complete the machining. And for heavens sake if you are going to mount a finished gear in a vise to drill a hole, protect your new gear teeth with a couple pieces of wood between the gear and the vise jaws! Sheesh.

At 17:45/24:25 the sound is an oscillation. This would mean one tooth doing most of the cutting?🤔🤔🤔🤔 Nice end result.

Did your cook run off?

I wonder why they made the shaft 11/16ths, rather than a standard size, like three quarters?

I've got an old table saw arbor bracket that's toothed for the raising and lowering of the blade, but the teeth are all chipped off. Wondering if having one recast and machined would be a cost effective option or if the table saw is just scrap now

Zooming in on the cutter, the arbor seemed to be running true but the cutter appeared to not be centered on the arbor shaft. Also the arbor spacer to the right had a wobble as if it was not bored on center. Would it make sense to try to center the cutter on the arbor before you start cutting the gear.

Always start with a CAT scan

Excellent video. How did you center the gear cutter on the horizontal mill to the centerline of the gear?

That’s been so long ago, I can barely remember it."…

Now I want a Lathe of my own...as a minimum...I guess....

You just got a Cat-Scan.

...Is Marion still in the shop?

Keith, Practical Machinist says no cutting oil on cast iron, is there a reason you use cutting oil on reaming and broaching?

Nice 😎😎😎👍👍👍

Another informative video Keith. Thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge with us. Smash the Like and Subscribe buttons please.

How long did it take you to do the whole process???

13:52 Why is there still run out?

Thanks for the video. Does a cast part such as this need to be heated and slowly cooled to relieve internal stress? If so, would this be done prior to machining? Just curious.

❤

You need to find yourself an old hobber. I have a #12 barber colman that I paid 600.00 for. It would make that gear in about 5 minutes. I believe it was made around 1920. It would fit right in with the other machines. Here is a little video of it running. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d3fFn2LsS0s.html

with a bent arbor shouldn`t that affect depth of cut ?

How would they produce that gear in the scale (speed) of needing them to produce maybe 100 forge blowers a day?

Looks like a manufactured gear, only better quality.

Is you mike on the camera? because each time you turn you head the volume changes and it is harder to heard you.

SECTOR.....NOT...SCEPTOR.... This is probably the fifth time I've left this comment on as many videos. Hope you see this one. This mistake is a language term called an eggcorn. It is when you substitute a word for something similar that makes sense. The term eggcorn come from people who mistook acorn for eggcorn. Acorns are roughly egg shaped and is a seed or corn of the plantn so it makes sense. In your case, yes, a septor is a long rod held out in by an arm....makes sense. The actual term is sector which are divisions of a circle on a diving head...which is dividing a circle into sectors. Hope this helps but as before you'll probably never see this.