designing tuner. worm gear improvement

I love vintage fender and most open back tuners, they seem to hold tune better than sealed, plus you can flip the side on good ones.

Bit ! $! $$, 25$ each for hipshots, us 6plus string players the cost is high. At first I had just wanted to make a few hipshot copies for my own use, then I came opon this..
it is a 20-1 worm gear, but the new profile supposed ly provides higher torque and greater stability. Hmmm. Off to the machine shop!

Also anyone know a sourace for work gear sets?

 

Or are there any machinist s that know how to make a tapered worm like that t??

 

What tools are needed to make that?

 

I was thinking aircraft aluminum, how large of an order would you estimate to get down to about 10$ a piece. I think there is a market, what makes me think so is how much hipshot ultralight s go for used, not much less than new. Maybe I'm underestimating what they could be sold for, I was thinking 25 tops, but that tapered gear is revolutionary, I estimate 200% more contact area. At first I thought that meant 200% better holding , then I realized friction at the nylon probably contribute s to the "lock" as well. Probably friction between the sprocket and the housing too. I hope no one steals this idea. I better send off a patent app just in case it ends up working.

 

Is the screw part referred to as a spiral pinion shaft?

Brooch, hobbing, you machinist s have cool words! I had enrolled in a few machinist classes for this semester but missed the deadline.

I know someone with a 3rd generation machine shop, huge building,, they make parts for Lockheed, Boeing, nasa, dod, but I guess even companies like that are outsourcing to china. My friend is also a fair guitar ists and he hates the family business, looking to find something new to produce. We tried flameworking torches but they are really complicated.

A made in the USA hipshot alternative , possibly with different grades, if the taper improve s the tuner noticeably and is not just a gimmicks we could charge more for those, and have straight gears cheaper. I'm tires of trying to explain sketches tho, and I'm not good with modeling software yet.

Powder coated and polished or beaded satin all would be cool finishes.

 

Is the screw part called a hob?
Recommend a book to learn the basics terms, I feel stupid trying to communicate this stuff.
Primitive worm gear hobbing in a lathe:

 

Can I make both parts with this?
http://m.harborfreight.com/7-inch-x-10-inch-precision-mini-lathe-93212.html
could I cut the worm screw ((term?)) With deep deep threads and then grind a v in the center to achieve that?

 

Doesn't have to be exactly as pictued, just a square tipped round shaft , and a gear with a way to attach thev3/8; -1/2" string post.

 

Is the screw part referred to as a spiral pinion shaft?

Brooch, hobbing, you machinist s have cool words! I had enrolled in a few machinist classes for this semester but missed the deadline.

I know someone with a 3rd generation machine shop, huge building,, they make parts for Lockheed, Boeing, nasa, dod, but I guess even companies like that are outsourcing to china. My friend is also a fair guitar ists and he hates the family business, looking to find something new to produce. We tried flameworking torches but they are really complicated.

A made in the USA hipshot alternative , possibly with different grades, if the taper improve s the tuner noticeably and is not just a gimmicks we could charge more for those, and have straight gears cheaper. I'm tires of trying to explain sketches tho, and I'm not good with modeling sof

 

Thank you bruce, very much.

Re. The last thing you said, o don't expect to manufacture them in quantity, just invent and design them.I would like to have a bass I made everything on, from winding pickups to cutting the abalone. Personal goal.

Is there anything like a hipshot on the market? Open back, compact tuner e head?

 

That is exactly how i, and most experienced players tune, I saw my daughter just tuning down and I realized tuners , especially cheap ones can't do thay, they go flat.

This high contact thong should take the play out completely.

I just need to make one prototype, trying to learn cad.
Maybe I'll 3d print a plastic one to demo.

 

Actually several reasons, First it bothers me that there is only one "Proper" tuning machine on the market for bass, Hipshot Ultralights. Nothing else is good enough once you use them (iMO). Guitar has many, and they offer bass tuners too, but usually are just a scaled up version of a guitar tuner. I cut a few sealed tuners open and couldnt believe how small the working parts were. and Play. too much play.

At first i wanted to see if it would be hard to build a set of my own, and if I could get the parts cheap enough. I can get a 20-1 worm gear set in about the right size for about $4, if I buy 100, made of aircraft aluminum,. Then there is the housing, which my jewelry background has me leaning twords casting rather than fabrication or machining for economics. I could 3d print the housing, then vacuum investment cast them in brass, or silver, or whatever.

It was while messing around with the idea that one of the companies I contacted sent me information on the 20-1 high co9ntact worm gear set, and I realized that even if it didn't improve the function, people would think it did, if nothing else it looks pretty cool.

I am always looking for a new career, or at least a profitable tangent, I make stuff, that's my thing. if I stumble on something I think will fly, I'm going to jump on it, prototype it, find a manufacturer, package it, bring it to NAAM and hype the hell out of it, give it to every master bassist I can think of, print t shirts and fire them from cannons....well you get the idea. I have had too many good ideas end up on the shelf by someone else a year or two later, right now, 3 other people probably thought of the same thing. I want to make a tuner to compete with hipshot. Cotter Pins. My last name is Cotter, Cotter Pins has a nice ring to it. If you leave the cotter pin off the wheel of your car, the wheel falls off, it's just a little piece of wire, but I have had a wheel fall off a vw bus, torqued to 280, roll right past me on the highway going down a bridge. A friend of mine tried it with Glass picks, they made thousands, took em to NAAM (that makes a huge difference), gave em away, but the problem was, while the idea was cool, and they looked great, they really were useless to play with, too twangy and odd.

It might not even work, maybe the play comes from somewhere else, or they will be too hard to turn, who knows. I'm hoping there will be zero play, that you can tune sharp to flat, and they will feel butta smooth.

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, in fact the open back design is a throwback to fender's 18-1 design, I just want to improve it. If however 5 years from now I am a Bass Tuning Pin (because people will call them tuning pins then) mogul, I will offer them in a 22-1, if it works to be able to tune sharp to flat then finer adjustments are possible,like the micro tuners on a Floyd Rose, you can tune sharp to flat on those.

here are some bad ideas I have had regarding tuners--
I had considered moving the tuner to the body and adding a high torque mini motor to adjust them, or adding a secondary 40-1 set of gears turned by an inset in the peg head, adding an offset additional gear to make turning the peg effortless, endless random bad ideas.

 

I saw some on a banjo once. I didn't know what he was talking about at the time.