DIY Laser levelling using webcam and laser level

[cropwell]

Hi Kit,

Inkscape has an add-on that will draw involute toothed gears and gear racks. I have used this to input a dxf into Fusion360 to extrude it to an stl for 3D printing. I haven't yet had the need to cnc cut one though. If you want helical cut teeth you are on your own.

Cheers,

Rob

[Kitwn]

Rob,
Thanks for the information but I use a rather splendid bit of software called 'gearotic' written by Art Fenerty, the creator of MACH3. For anybody interested in creating gears of any kind you can think of, and several kinds you previously couldn't, and especially anyone who wants to design wooden clocks I can heartily recommend it. The program, not unlike Art himself, is a little eccentric and is therefore, in my humble opinion, well suited to many of the regular contributors to MYCNCUK The one-off, minimal license fee entitles you to a lifetime of free upgrades.

Gearotic is brilliant for creating the basic gear design. I then export a DXF file to CamBam for design editing and G-code output.

My problem in cutting wooden gears is that those teeth that have the grain running tangential to the gear wheel tend to chip and break off when cutting. Teeth with the grain running radially are fine. I have managed to successfully cut gears from Jarrah blanks created from six segments with the grain running radially all round but the wastage of timber is criminal. I'm currently experimenting with plain pine blanks stabilised with Cactus Juice resin.

Most wooden clock makers use plywood for the gears but, being me, I want to use various types of better-looking plain timber to produce a more impressive result.

I had thought about starting a new thread asking for help on how to cut these gears if the current experiments don't work. I'd prefer not to hijack this existing discussion.

Kit

[John McNamara]

Hi All

Today I ran a test on a webcam generously sent to me as a gift from a forum member. A wonderful gesture.

I do not know much about the sensor apart from the fact that it appears to be dated 2012.

The test was made using the sensor and .008" piano wire as done before.

When I tested it with Joe's software it counted 93.7 pixel lines to measure 0.2mm
My previous tests with a Microsoft webcam over the same distance of 0.2mm counted 47.56 lines.

The new tests prove the camera given to me has almost twice the resolution of the Microsoft unit.

0.0021mm or 0.00008 inches. per pixel line.

The new camera also displayed less noise and was less sensitive to stray light. All in all a better unit. I will try to find out more about it.

The latest results have really inspired me to to press on with improving the mounting of the camera and better light control. I will report back here with my results. Maybe the Webcam driver software can be used to adjust the sensitivity. That would be useful.

There may even be higher resolution webcam sensors available.... technology marches on.

The accuracy now already achieved will enable the unit to be used to easily test large precision machine tables for flatness if the catenary equation sag corrections can be applied to the measurements.

All this started with Joe's software, Thanks Joe.

Regards
John

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