Gear mounted

  On Friday, I managed to get some more work in.  I decided that since I did not have dividers that were big enough to verify the wheel was centered, I put small extensions on the end of the divider and I was able to use this to verify everything was nice and centered.

  I started with bending the tabs over to secure the hub,spokes and wheel together.



This turned out to be a nice tight fit.  Next came the arbor.  Since the arbor is square where the gear attaches, I need to use a square punch.  To line it up, I drew lines down the center of the spokes.  Then the corners of the punch were placed on the lines to properly center it.  This picture shows the placement of the punch.



After placing the punch, I then used that as a guide to tap 4 divots in the hub.  This would allow me to properly place the punch after heating.  The divots marked the corners and I used that to start punching the hole.  A bit more of "beauty shot" is shown here.  This is after the first 2 or 3 punches.  Coal dust has gathered in the punched area.  Look for the darker square in the middle of the fire.



When I had punched the arbor about 25% through the hub, I placed the hub over a bolster plate (flat piece of metal with a hole in it that matches what you are trying to punch) and I was able to easily push the remaining material out.

Finally, after punching the arbor hole, I put the new gear on the arbor to try it out in the clock frame.



If you look carefully, there is a square washer on both sides of the gear on the arbor.  This helps to keep it perpendicular to the arbor.

It looks pretty good.  I need to tilt the gear a bit.  However, the gear does seem to be a lot more centered then my first attempt.  The variance seems to be at a maximum of 1/4" with the average being under 1/8".  That is about the best I can really hope for.

After doing just a bit more cleanup, the next step will be the grinding of the outside to get it nice and round.  After that, maybe I can finally start cutting the gear.

As an added note, in future gears, I will punch the arbor prior to mounting the hub and spokes in the wheel.  I had to constantly restraighten the spokes while I was doing the punching.