What makes two gears mesh?

Two involute gears mesh when they share the same module and the same pressure angle. Nothing else has to match, which is why a 12 tooth pinion drives a 40 tooth wheel happily.

What module should I use for laser cut gears?

Module 3 to 5 is the sweet spot for laser cut plywood and acrylic. Below module 2 the teeth are smaller than the kerf can hold cleanly.

How much backlash do laser cut gears need?

Start at 0.1 to 0.2 mm, which is roughly one laser kerf. Kerf removes material from every tooth flank, so a pair cut with zero backlash usually still turns, but a pair cut with charred edges will bind without it.

How do I choose planetary gear tooth counts?

The ring must have sun teeth plus twice the planet teeth. For evenly spaced planets, the sun teeth plus the ring teeth must divide by the number of planets. The generator checks both and warns you when they do not hold.

Gear Generator

Design meshing gears that really turn: involute and cycloidal teeth, planetary sets, ring gears, racks, compound stacks, and non-circular gears that speed up and slow down.

Settings

Preset

Start from

A 30 tooth wheel driving a 12 tooth pinion, the everyday starting point.

Arrangement

What to build

Layout

Assembled shows the gears meshed. Cut sheet spreads the parts out so nothing overlaps.

Tooth profile

Involute is the modern standard. Cycloidal is the clockmaker's form and tolerates pinions down to six leaves.

Teeth

Module

Tooth size in millimetres. Pitch diameter is module times teeth. Stay at 3 or more for laser cut plywood.

First gear teeth

Second gear teeth

Fit

Pressure angle

deg

Profile shift

Fattens the tooth root so small pinions stop undercutting. Both gears in a pair get the same shift here.

0.00

Backlash

Play between meshing teeth. Add roughly one laser kerf so the pair does not bind.

Root clearance

0.25 x module

Root fillet

Rounds the corner where the flank meets the root. Fillets stop plywood splitting along the grain.

0.35 x module

Style

Centre style

Bore diameter

Spokes

Spoke width

Rim width

Hub width

Add a setting gauge

A small drilling template with two holes at the exact centre distance, so you can mark the shafts instead of measuring.

Numbers

Centre distance 1 to 2: 84.00 mm
Ratio 30:12 turns 0.40x slower
Last gear turns against the first
Pitch diameter: 120.0 mm

Vector Export

3D Print Design

Each gear is extruded to the depth you set. Print gears flat with three or more perimeters so the teeth are solid wall.

Extrusion Depth

3MF preserves richer print metadata when your slicer supports it.

Generate a design to see the 2D preview

Generate a design to see the export preview

Inspirational Palette

181.2 x 155.5 mm

Examples

Laser cut in cherry plywood. The involute teeth mesh cleanly straight off the sheet.

Laser cut spoked gear meshing with a matching pinion in cherry plywood

Material used:

TruFlat® Cherry Plywood

Set the module and tooth counts, then cut the pair. Lightened spokes keep the big wheel easy to turn.

How To Use

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The Gear Generator is 100% free with no limits, no watermarks, and no trial period. Generate and download as many files as you want, free forever.

Free gear maker with real involute and cycloidal teeth: meshing pairs, trains, planetary sets, racks and non-circular gears.. Adjust the settings, preview your design in real time, and download a ready-to-make file in seconds.

It exports clean SVG files for laser cutting, CNC, and vinyl, plus STL and multi-colour 3MF files for 3D printing. Everything is generated instantly in your browser.

Laser cutters and engravers including Glowforge, xTool, LightBurn, OMTech, Epilog, Trotec, Thunder Laser, and any machine that accepts SVG or vector files. CNC routers and mills via SVG import in tools like Vectric, Carbide Create, Easel, and Fusion 360. 3D printers via slicers such as Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, OrcaSlicer, and Cura, with 3MF files carrying colour data for multi-colour prints.

You can use wood, acrylic, leather, MDF, plywood, cardboard, and paper for laser cutting and CNC, and PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, and any filament your printer supports for 3D printing. The generated files are standard formats compatible with any material your machine can handle.

No account or sign-up is required for the Gear Generator. It runs entirely in your browser, your designs never leave your device, and there is nothing to install.

Yes. A commercial license is included, so you can sell products made with the Gear Generator on Etsy, Amazon Handmade, Shopify, at craft fairs, or anywhere else. Attribution is appreciated but not required.

Visit the MyLaserTools Learning Center for a step-by-step Gear Generator guide, plus material tips and file-format help for laser cutting, CNC, and 3D printing. The guides walk you through every setting and how to prepare your files for your machine.

Open the Gear Generator guide

About

This free gear generator draws real gear geometry, not gear-shaped decoration. Involute flanks are taken off the base circle, tooth thickness comes from the pitch circle with your backlash allowance removed, roots are cut to a genuine clearance depth and rounded with a fillet, and a tooth that would come to a point is clipped back rather than allowed to cross itself.

Beyond plain spur gears it builds trains of up to twelve gears, internal ring gears, racks, planetary sets with the assembly condition checked for you, compound stacks with matching spacer rings, and non-circular gears whose mate is solved numerically from the no-slip condition so an ellipse really does roll against its conjugate. Cycloidal teeth are there too, for clock work where pinions drop to six or eight leaves.

Everything exports as a layered SVG for laser cutting or CNC, plus print-ready STL and 3MF parts. For a planetary display clock with exposed cog wheels that turn around a ring gear, use the Moving Gear Wall Clock.

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