Cheap and Simple Gear Puller

This instructables describes and shows how to build a simple gear puller.

If you like to tinker with motors you'll find that a lot of motors from toys and equipment have stubborn pinion gears stuck on the shafts. These can be a pain to remove, and while prying on them or punching them out with a hammer can sometimes work, you risk damaging the motor.

This will show you how to make a very effective gear puller with basic tools and next to no cost.

Step 1 Cutting the frame

You will need something to act as the frame for the puller. Square metal tubing works great for this as long as the wall is thick enough to tap threads.

I used a piece of 1" square steel tubing with 0.1" wall thickness. I cut it to a length of 0.75" with a hacksaw, it doesn't have to be pretty.

Comments

[cebulifer]

Very nice puller. Will be making this soon.

[dpsilver]

 thnx for the idea once again i did this for a mechanical practical were i had to make one but it never occured that i can make one for my personal use lol

[brunoip]

Great idea, now I'm burning my hammer, I won't use it any more.

[DavidRobertson]

linear actuator?

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

it works on the same principle that bicycle chain breaker tools do -small amounts of force applied over a long period of time have lots of strength - you can drill holes in pennies with chain breakers

[static]

Clever idea, should work well up to it's limitations, all tools have them, pleas don't read that as a negative. Great instructable showing others how to do it. Well worth it's inclusion in the weekly email bulletin. A rare 5 rating from myself.

[ve2vfd]

Awesome mini puller! I made something similar years ago, except I just drilled a straight hole and tacked a nut onto a 4x4 square tubing, darn it I should I threaded the tubing instead! :D

[kelseymh]

Depends on your tool kit. If you have a tap and die set, then use it. Otherwise, your solution is a good alternative!

[static]

No tap or welder? Simply put a nut on the underside. Adds a level of awkwardness. But it may convince to the buy a tap handle and tap, to begin equipping your shop. Actually if you can get a good tack weld without altering the properties if the nut, the thread in the nut will last way longer than tapped in the tubing. Then again if you get the tap you you can simply make a new tool, when needed.

[lemonie]

Lovely tool, do you have plans for a gear-pusher?

L

[static]

a bench vise works well for that job, for small parts. For a dedicated tool for the job HF has their 1 T. versicle press on sale a lot.

[travis7s]

You can use the same idea as a pusher, it just has to be bigger. I won't make an instructable as it would be near identical but it would work like this:

[lemonie]

Neat. You could add it in as step 7 rather than make a separate instructable? L

[sleebus.jones]

Cool! Great use of tubular (boxular?) steel. Definitely something I need to build.

[static]

tubular(or simply tubing) works. When you go to the machine shop to buy the stuff you ask for certain size of rectangular or square tubing, or round if you need that. Go ahead and ask for boxular, you may put a grin on the face of the staff for the rest of the day. I wouldn't be surprised if they took to calling it boxular within their shop for a while. Tradesmen can be funny in that way. Nope according to the urban dictionary boxular is already taken

[mister fixit]

this gear puller is a good design .I look for new pullers to make all the time ,as i work in the mechanical trade. Thanks

[thematthatter]

that looks like a blank firing adapter for a M16

[sublingual]

My thoughts exactly. You could probably adapt a BFA even quicker than starting with square tubing...

[cafriend]

Damn sure does. Ah the BFA...

[deaton]

For us model railroaders, such a gear puller is available commercially but cost more than a few bucks. Nice to see a home made copy that looks identical and seems to function the same.

[jovino]

Easy, simple and well documented. Good jorb. :)

[bd5]

Great Instructable!

[clasher]

A bigger version of this would be easy to modify for removing cottered cranks on bicycles. Thanks for the idea!

[jghagen]

This is a good design that emulates the NorthWest Short Line pullers except this is a heavier duty design, at least when comparing to the original HO puller from NWSL. I have owned the standard puller for years and it has given me good service.

[unclejack]

I am a mechanic and have big pullers, but this is a quick and easy puller for a smaller item, good one!

[benthekahn]

It seems this would also work well as a chain breaker for bike chain.

[rada194]

exactly what i was thinking

[3leftturns]

Adding a larger knob or using a tuning peg screw would make it easier to turn the screw. Cool project dude!

[travis7s]

That is true. I typically need to use a allen wrench to to the screw.

[3leftturns]

Also, I don't know if the spacing between the motor and the gear always allows the motor to be slid on the unit easily... maybe you could file down the edge to make a little wedge for the motor/gear.

[travis7s]

Good observations, really small motors tend to not fit in this particular size. You can file the bottom down, or make a new one with thinner walls for small motors.

[Einsteins Circuitry]

This is an awesome idea. I wish I had known about this before I ruined a couple gears trying to pry them out with pliers.

[uguy]

Excellent, well done!!

[meztek]

Great -ible. Those gears are always hard to get off motor shafts.

[T3h_Muffinator]

Niceun! I usually end up damaging the gear by using pliers, but determined another (pretty easy) technique! @ Use dikes with low-gauge wire strippers. @ Place the shaft of the motor in the stripping part of the dikes (dikes upside-down) @ pull! I suppose it may damage the motor, but 'hasn't yet for me...

[travis7s]

What do you mean by dikes?

[T3h_Muffinator]

Diagonal Cutters!

[corey_caffeine]

water retaining structure?

[corey_caffeine]

keeping is SFW

[stephenniall]

Hmm very smart idea Rated 5/5 for your excellent idea