12 replies to this topic

[Calamity Cellars]

My 1972 Scotts Lab electric driven corker has a small worm drive gear box. The driven gear needs to be replaced. I am looking for a machinist that can make a gear for me.

This is what I have:

I am very comfortable with the first set of numbers:

Number of Teeth: 38 mm
Root Diameter: 93 mm
Outside Diameter: 100 mm
Width: 22 mm

Pitch is tough to measure but I believe it is 6 mm

Here are pictures of the gear I need:

http://i194.photobuc...4-02-53_453.jpg
http://i194.photobuc...4-03-05_943.jpg
http://i194.photobuc...4-03-14_571.jpg

The hub is steel but the gear itself is bronze that is pressed on.

And for reference here is the drive worm gear:

http://i194.photobuc...0-00-42_671.jpg
http://i194.photobuc...0-01-08_229.jpg

I am happy to pay whoever ends up making this gear for me, either in cash or wine (assuming I can ship it to you.)

[Crazy Run Ranch]

Hi Alan, I'm not a machinist but machining is my business. You make a gear by cutting a blank from round stock on a lathe then milling the teeth using an indexed cross feed on the mill table. The tool that cuts the teeth is made specifically for making gears. I would find a local mom and pa machine shop and talk to them. They might send you to someone else but I bet you can find someone locally to make it for you. A rough guess would be $100-150 to get it made if you find someone with the tooling and willingness to reverse engineer the gear you have. Use an approach similar to how you source grapes. Respectfully kissing some butt will take you far. Of course you have tried to source this from the OEM, correct?
By the way, it looks like the engagement might be a little shallow. Does it need adjustment?

[Howie]

Just a thought - could you simply braze onto the gear to build it up, then file it to specs?

[Calamity Cellars]

I tried contacting the importer when I first got it. It was imported from Italy by Scott Labs of Canada in, I assume, 1972-73. When I called them they just laughed, which is understandable.

There is no adjustment available except an adjustable race on the tapered worm gear bearing which pushes it tight against a thrust bearing that is not pictured. I am guessing that this not being adjusted contributed to the problem as evidenced by the wear across the top of the driven gear teeth. If the worm gear was slack it probably climbed up under load.

The biggest factor for all of these problems, I believe, was the load out of this gearbox had some significant resistance due to two seized bearings and some mushrooming caused by the seized bearings. I have fixed all of the load issues and this gear is my final hurdle. I can now operate the corking functions by hand....but I don't want to!!!

[Crazy Run Ranch]

With the bearing and adjustments fixed, it won't work? There is definitely wear on the gear but I'm surprise it won't still work OK. For this worm gear/spur gear application, the arc cut across the face of the gear is supposed to be there to clear the worm gear. But you know that, right?
If the engagement with the worm is to tight that might cause the binding and a bent worm shaft will too.

[cknowlto]

Wish I could help you out but I am not good enough to make gears. My skills are all self taught so I kinda suck :-) I got the tools, now only if I could find the time to get taught!

[Green Zeus]

Calamity---A good friend of my brother has a large machinicist job shop. He's one of those AR-type of machinists and does large contract work for many companies and even the government. He's in Avon Lake, Ohio.

If you can't find someone locally, let me know and I'll give you his contact info so you can call him and talk to him and see if he's the guy for this job.

[RSG]

Hey Alan, I just noticed this thread. Did you ever get your gear issue resolved? I can help you if your stuck but you'd probably have to send me the shaft to press a new one on. The shipping might get expensive so consider it an alternative if you can't find someone local at a reasonable price as you already know what mine will be

[Calamity Cellars]

Update: I have a local machine shop that is going to install a gear that is being made in New Jersey. Apparantly making these gears is a difficult task that requires special equipment that most shops don't have. I had several shops tell me that I could order the gear from several "gears.com" type sites. The problem is this turns out to be a unique gear because of the number of teeth and the metric dimensions so all of the .com suppliers had to tool up for it and the gear itself was going to be around $2000.00 plus having the local shop install it. In the the end a friend's son-in-law has a machine shop and he is able to leverage one of his connections and I will be getting the gear and installation for $525.00.

[Crazy Run Ranch]

Maybe the pictures aren't showing the problem, but what's the problem with the gear?

[RSG]

As CRR mentions the gear doesn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary, $525.00 is a bit rich IMO but if you need it I guess price doesn't matter.

[Tomer1]

Sure is cheaper then throwing the machine away and buying another one.

I wonder ,how did you come across a 1970's corker?

[Calamity Cellars]

It bounced around from winery to winery. The last person to use it before it failed gave it to a friend of mine as a thank you for helping with bottling. My friend thought he could make it work but decided it was out of his league. This thing has a very interesting Washington Wine History which I am still trying to sort out. Some very large and successfully wineries had this as their first powered corker.