Making a Woodruff key

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

G'day.

I have been asked to make a Woodruff key for an electric motor driving an aluminium gear (mates rates, payment in stubbies).

So what is the best way to approach such a simple job?

I thought of using plasticene to get the diameter, turning and parting off a disc and then milling it to fit. Might paint it dayglo to help find this one. Any pointers?

Regards from the land of the kangaroo

* Danny M *

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Turn to the reqd diameter, mill the flat & then part off to get the key, well that in theory should be the best way

Tony

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I've made a couple of keys in the past. Just saw of a slice from a high-tensile bolt of the right diameter ,file to thickness and cut of to correct hight. Keys are made to standards, see mHand book.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Plent on e-bay and they are not expemsive and likely to be a better fit and the correct hardness.

J

[jonathan heppelParticipant @jonathanheppel43280]

A woodruff in an aluminium pulley might as well be mild steel- no point in using anything fancier. They shouldn't really be used for transmitting much torque anyway. The keyways are usually cut quite closely to nominal size. so I've parted off a disc a thou or so over, fitted with a file etc, then milled or more often sawn and filed to fit the pulley,

If a close fit isn't necessary, eg if you're loctiting it, just aim for nominal size and it'll be fine,

[Author]

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