Gear cutting

The most common gear-cutting processes include hobbing, broaching, milling, grinding, and skiving.

Some metal gears made with powder metallurgy require subsequent machining, whereas others are complete after sintering.

Likewise, metal or plastic gears made with additive manufacturing may or may not require finishing by cutting, depending on application.

The downside to this is that it is expensive and different broach sticks are required to make different sized gears.

Spur may be cut or ground on a milling machine or jig grinder utilizing a numbered gear cutter, and any indexing head or rotary table.

Indexing fixtures can disengage the drive worm, and be attached via an external gear train to the machine table's handle (like a power feed).

The indexing fixture itself receives its name from the original purpose of the tool: moving the table in precise, fixed increments.

They have six to twelve teeth and eventually have to be moved back to the starting point to begin another cut.