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