Short pinion

[oz10k]

I was working on a project and ran into the situation where I needed a short pinion in order to get clearance with the crown gear. I have pretty good selection of pinions, but none with the right tooth count, pitch and hole size were short enough. I put the project on hold for a bit while I pondered what to do.

Finally I decided to try cutting a pinion. I thought about just using a hack saw, but I didn't think that would give a very clean cut. Then I thought of using a Dremel cut-off disc, but I wasn't sure how to get a good grip on the pinion while cutting it. Finally the light turned-on. I put the pinion on an old motor and connected it to a 5 volt supply. I was surprised how fast it cut, in about 20 seconds it was done!




Ron

[dungeonracer]

Finally the light turned-on

It does help when you flip the light switch

[chrisguyw]

As you have discovered, cutting pinions is quite easy, once you have discovered the technique..

In the future it may be worthwhile installing the pinion and cutting it on the motor you choose to use......pulling pinions and re-installing them can enlarge the bore a smidge, (especially with brass pinions) which may cause the pinion to slip.

In case you did not know, both NSR and MRSlotcar make shallow depth pinions in a variety of diameters/bores/toothcounts.

MRSlotcar make 4.5/5.5/6.5/7.5 mm dia. reduced depth pinions in both 1.5mm, and, 2.0mm bores

NSR make reduced depth (they call them "ultralite") pinions in 5.5/6.5/7.5 mm diameters, but, only in 2.0mm bore.

The MRSlotcar pinions (and Spurs) are excellent quality,....cut by Sonic.

Cheers
Chris Walker

PS,...It may be worthwhile cleaning the burrs off of the edges of the teeth of your "cut" pinion

[oz10k]

Excellent, thanks Chris!

[Kevan]

It does help when you flip the light switch

[Fathead59]

Lol , flipping the switch is always good , as long as you know where that switch is located . Because if you don't you are actually fumbling around in the dark .