11–18 of 18 posts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear_train#Hunting_and_non-hun...
Basically you don't want any common denominators in teeth count, otherwise the same sets of teeth will engage at some frequency. If there is a small imperfection on a tooth it'll wear out quicker. E.g. a set with 5:14 teeth will theoretically wear better than a set with 5:15 teeth.
Reading this kind of stuff always makes me admire Victorian engineers even more, who had to do all the math by hand, to say nothing of the machine designs to cut and create these types of gears and mechanical systems. I suppose they learned a lot from prior tech, like clockmaking, but even there it would seem that fundamental problems would have needed solutions from scratch (eg shear failure probably isnt much of a…
As an aside, for those not familiar with the author's other posts, do take a look. They are lovingly illustrated and explained, and cover a wide variety of topics.
A fun simple gear related concept is "hunting tooth". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear_train#Hunting_and_non-hun... Basically you don't want any common denominators in teeth count, otherwise the same sets of teeth will engage at some frequency. If there is a small imperfection on a tooth it'll wear out quicker. E.g. a set with 5:14 teeth will theoretically wear better than a set with 5:15 teeth.
The simplest explanations I have found for involute gears is from one of those old 50's training films[0]. Not sure if this is the same one, but the first few minutes give a very intuitive explanation of where the involute shape comes from. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlp8RxFt0ec
Spinning Levers - How A Transmission Works (1936) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOLtS4VUcvQ
The simplest explanations I have found for involute gears is from one of those old 50's training films[0]. Not sure if this is the same one, but the first few minutes give a very intuitive explanation of where the involute shape comes from. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlp8RxFt0ec
https://howtomechatronics.com/how-it-works/what-is-strain-wa...
If you search on YouTube there are a couple of good videos where people have 3D printed their own to demonstrate the principles