Posted by BillS on October 11, 2009 at 17:14:24:
In Reply to: Fly cut a Spline? posted by Jim Pollock on October 11, 2009 at 16:55:13:
Theoretically possible, but practically impossible.
You would have to take quite a few passes, each after shifting the cutter slightly. This would ease chip load, but equally important would create an involute profile.
But maybe you don't want an involute profile?
Maybe you want a straight sided or parallel side spline? or a ratchet tooth?
You might grind a cutter for special non-involute profiles (e.g. to cut parallel sided spines). Then you would center the cutter at top of its arc with line from workpiece center perpendicular to cutter shaft axis. This might not be as easy as it sounds. Then by lowering at small increments, take many feed passes until at full depth. Seems like it would work.
But to generate an involute that a rack-form hob cutter can generate would be verrry difficult.