Swapping out Gears in Impact Wrench?

[YoshiMoshi3]

Has anyone ever done themselves or seen reports of people swapping out the gears in their impact wrenches? Especially in right angle impact wrenches, gears are used plenty.

I was thinking that a small gear with less teeth driving a larger gear with more more teeth will produce more torque.

Now we can't simply swap out gears with different sizes gears without engineering different mount locations or possibly different sizes cases to accommodate changes in gear sizes at different locations.

But you can keep the same sized gears and instead go to gears with a finer pitch resulting in more teeth.

But if you increase the number of teeth in the drive gear and driven gear but keep the same diameter by changing the pitch, does the gear ratio remain the same? If so this would be kind of pointless as no more torque or speed would be obtained.

 

[RTM]

But if you increase the number of teeth in the drive gear and driven gear but keep the same diameter by changing the pitch, does the gear ratio remain the same? If so this would be kind of pointless as no more torque or speed would be obtained

Yes, and yes, IMO

 

[john.k]

I doubt you could make any change on a mass produced tool that would be an improvement ..........as to replacing gears ,and changing ratio s ...could be done ,if you were willing to have gears custom made ........a local gear place here wanted $500 up front ,before any metal was cut....incidentally tool gears are generally sintered powder .

 

[Marlin]

Has anyone ever done themselves or seen reports of people swapping out the gears in their impact wrenches? Especially in right angle impact wrenches, gears are used plenty.

I was thinking that a small gear with less teeth driving a larger gear with more more teeth will produce more torque.

Now we can't simply swap out gears with different sizes gears without engineering different mount locations or possibly different sizes cases to accommodate changes in gear sizes at different locations.

But you can keep the same sized gears and instead go to gears with a finer pitch resulting in more teeth.

But if you increase the number of teeth in the drive gear and driven gear but keep the same diameter by changing the pitch, does the gear ratio remain the same? If so this would be kind of pointless as no more torque or speed would be obtained.

These products are designed as a system, tolerances, materials, heat treat are all developed to function together, you are not going to find off the shelf gears that you can swap in that will function let alone improve the product. Also, the engineers don't just leave extra performance on the table, there is a balance between performance and durability.

 

[Joemctag]

All I can say is that you’ve got a helluva lot more knowledge about this stuff than most of us. Gear cutting and fitting is some pretty exacting stuff. You soundlike you’re up to it and while there’s probably not much benefit, it’s people like you who inspire and amaze the rest if us. Good luck!

 

[Joemctag]

YoshiMoshi, even if you don’t reallyknow much about what you’re contemplating, I salute you for posting about the subject. That’s what this forum is sll about ! I am constantlly amazed when I hear the depth and breadth of knowledge in a particular area that members have.

 

[Cruzan80]

I think you are coming at this from a fundamentally flawed place. Cutting gears is not an easy task. Have you looked at an involute gear profile? It is not a flat shape. Anything off the shelf is highly unlikely to simply be able to drop in and fit. Then you are talking about modifying current mounting holes on expensive equipment, etc. Add to that the ad-hoc battery designs you have brought up before to try and get more power, and this isn't going to end well.

At some point, simply accept that the battery power tool design for what you want to do isn't out there, in a form factor for the job you need. Sorry to be blunt.