pinions

Here I make pinion wire. All of my pinions are made out of 5/16" diameter stock on the milling machine. When I have cut all my leaves I can cut off a pinion one at a time at the required length, drill the hole and position on the arbor. A main advantage of fabricating instead of turning the whole arbor & pinion from solid is so that it is much easier to depth the pinions to the wheels using a simple homemade depthing tool. 3 pinions are to have 8 leaves and 4 have 7.
The 3rd and Centre pinions are 8 leaves and both are turned down to the 3/16" to hold their wheels respectively. The Scape, Fly, Warn, and Pallet are 7 leaves. And the Pin is 8 leaves. Pinions and pivots should be hardened and tempered to prevent wear.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]