Following the workshop move. I have been looking at how to get some of the Spur gears and Pinions, along with some of the conversions packs that I removed from the web site, back into production.
To this end I have been looking at getting the Mikron type 79 gear hobber I have back into use. But the main problem that I had is the lack of Index change gears I had for the hobber. I could get these made but the number I would require to cover the original gear range produced, would make this very expensive to do.
So, if this was to work I needed another option. To this end and following a conversation with my brother, we decided to design and produce a system using stepper motors and custom software to replace the original index change gear system. This update will not cover exactly what was done, but using two high torque stepper motors to replace the change gears and custom designed software to synchronise the two stepper motor for the required number of teeth. We can now cut spur and pinion gears from 8 to 74 teeth in steps of one tooth.
The system is setup and run using any of the following; a laptop, tablet or phone which are connected via the systems built-in wi-fi connection and web interface. The system is still under test/development, but is working well enough to allow me to put some of the gears and conversions back on the web site. some of which I have listed below.
Gears:
Mainline ‘Warship’ final drive gear
RG4 final drive gear
Conversions:
Hornby and Bachmann Class 08 ‘Diesel Shunter’
Heljan Class 47, 33 52 ‘Western’
(For a full list, see the related product section)
Just some of the gears, so far produced using the new Index change gear system.
From left to right and top to bottom.
Heljan Class 47,33 etc.
Bachmann Class 08 Diesel shunter, 8750 etc.
RG4 final drive gear.
Hornby Class 08 Diesel shunter
