That would be doable if someone was willing to gamble five or six grand on a short run
of ten sets.
I’m sure that a manufacturer could bring them in for around $500 to $600 a set even in
this country. In the US there wouldn’t be enough profit to pay the electric bill but in the
far east I’d bet you could bring them in for a third of that which would leave plenty of
room for mark up.
I’m not sure how you would engineer it. I would think that they would have to work off
of drawings and gear drawing are quite complicated. I don’t know if it is possible to take
a 4.57 or 5.14 gear set and scale the teeth to a 3.90 ratio. If that were the case there are
plenty of them around that could be sent as working samples.
I really don’t have any problem buying non-American products that we are unwilling to
make in this country. Any company that is set up to manufacture ring and pinion gears
should be able to give you a reliable product, it‘s not like something that can be produced
out back of the house in a make shift shop like a lot of the simpler items. Gear
manufacturing is really a specialized business that takes a lot of know how.
I can say this for sure, that anyone willing to pursue this can put me at the top of the list
for a couple of sets when they receive their shipment. For the life of me I don’t
understand why one of the vendors doesn’t take a chance on a test run. If I weren’t retired
living like a pauper I thing I might even take a stab at it.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Last edited by Denny Graham; 01/27/2012 5:14 PM.
