Machining gears expensive?

[corranhornjje]

Working on a little project and curious to see if machining gears is difficult/expensive for a machinist to do. Gear is about 3" in diameter and about 1/4" thick. Haven't figured out the number of teeth yet. but i's probably 12+/- per inch.

 

[pennausamike]

YES

Sorry, but that's the short answer.
Special tools are required for gear making and the cheapest (non-hobby) shop rate is going to run you $45 to $60 an hour.
Would love it for your sake if someone out there can prove me wrong.

Mike

 

[Chris Martin]

It's not just down to number of teeth but tooth form as well. If you're after a straight cut tooth like you might get in a clock, it can be done for a price. If you're after a constant mesh angle cut gear like you might get in a car gearbox, forget about having one made. The cost would be prohibitive. Gears can be bought off the shelf from specialist suppliers which a Google search should yield.

This is the company in the UK we get our ready made gears from. There must be others.

http://www.hpcgears.com/technical.htm