Cutting gears in metal sheet (or buying plastic ones)

[Deadeye]

If you had written in your first post the steps you had already taken and the conclusion you've come to I would not have spent any time searching for possible sources and I suspect some others might not have either. Maybe if you have been good Santa will put them under the tree for you.

Golly! Sorry to have offended you; unintended.

I'm genuinely exploring the options and all the posts have been helpful in that. I hadn't looked at water jet, but now have (as a consequence of this thread) - and it's expensive.

To summarise:
- I'd like to do this as inexpensively as possible because, well, because.
- I tried laser cutting. It produced a technical issue, although I'm not sure whether this is a feature of lasering meltable material or poor operation
- CNC is expensive
- I have researched (following this thread) 3d printing (£1 for 8cc seems the best I can find so quite costly) and water jet (expensive)
- The ready made options are frustrating as they either have bores too wide or limited size range or cost ten quid a go.
- I can cut wood ones, but they need to be modulus 3 and up really and it makes it very big.

Sometimes on things you don't know about, someone has a great tip or insight, or a website that is perfect but is on page 20+ of the search results.

On your post specifically I have not come across Alibaba before ... and have now raised a query. It's rather a daunting site though!

Thanks again for your help.

 

[profchris]

Could you buy the gears with the oversize bore and bush them down to your desired bore? Brass tube is available in 1mm increments with each size fitting inside the other. A little slop, but not too bad.

 

[AES]

Exactly the same thought occurred to me profchris (but I remembered it after I posted on this thread).

AES

 

[Deadeye]

Could you buy the gears with the oversize bore and bush them down to your desired bore? Brass tube is available in 1mm increments with each size fitting inside the other. A little slop, but not too bad.

That's a good idea - thank you

 

[RobCee]

You may find that somewhere like 3D Hubs enables you to find a more competitive 3D-Printing service. You do have to register with them, but they enable you to pick the elements which are important to you for your job and match you with folks who have the capability.
I ended up matched to a local teenager with a 3D-Printer and the time to run a job for a very competitive price. You will need a 3D model of your gears though.

 

[dickm]

Thinking along the same lines, there is a place in Aberdeen called Make, which is community focused and has all sorts of printers and similar kit available for use. There are certainly other branches in Mainland Europe, so may be also elsewhere in UK.