Turning a worm (spiral) gear

[Douglas Miller]

I'm trying to repair SWMBO's antique skein winder, and I could use suggestions
on how to make a worm gear (spiral gear) from wood. It needs to be about 1.25"
in diameter, and I need three full turns of the spiral at a 0.6" pitch.

I'm an intermediate-level woodturner, but I've never done anything like *this*
before.

A metal lathe would probably be ideal, since they're *designed* for jobs like
this. Unfortunately, I don't have one -- I have a wood lathe, and its slowest
speed is still far too fast to even consider using it to cut the threads.

I also have an old Sears router-crafter which I acquired last year, but have
never used. I wonder if I might be able to use that somehow?

Suggestions, ideas, and crazy ideas are welcome... thanks in advance.

Regards,
Doug Miller

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[Bill Brachhold]

Doug,

Yes, your Router-Crafter may be useful, if it can be set for the correct
pitch. The other possibility, is to make them by hand, using a small
hand saw and files/rasps to make the tooth profile. A strip of paper
wrapped around your prepped, proper diameter blank can give you a guide.
You can either mark the blank with a pencil, using the paper strip as an
alignment guide or draw a line/lines down the center of the strip of paper,
then attach the paper strip with glue. Use the lines on the strip of paper
to guide your hand saw cuts.

Bill

ab...@ameritech.net (Douglas Miller) wrote in
news:Uzss8.14561$k5.52...@newssvr28.news.prodigy.com: