Obviously, for frequent milling jobs it's better to use special machines, like our Bergeon 6580. Sure, they have very high prices, nothing for the hobbyist, but they can give reliable service for a virtually unfinished time.
This wheel-cutting machine is built inspiring to Monsieur Hulot eighteenth century machine you can see on a drawing on the Diderot and d'Alembert Encyclopedia.
For wheel cutting, gear cutters are needed: they can be simply described as rotating files who cut away some material giving a particular shape to the metal, in this case a tooth shape. They must do this work with high precision; otherwise the uneven teeth profile can cause a bad mesh between wheels or wheel and pinion.
With these gear cutters almost every wheel of any tooth count and shape (escapement, countwheel, snail, ...) found on common pocket watches and pendulum clocks can be made.
