What is "hobbing"

vb. (present participle of hob English)

See hob

1. v. cut with a hob

2. [also: hobbing, hobbed]

1. n. (folklore) a small grotesque supernatural creature that makes trouble for human beings [syn: goblin, hobgoblin]

2. (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous [syn: elf, gremlin, pixie, pixy, brownie, imp]

3. a hard steel edge tool used to cut gears

4. a shelf beside an open fire where something can be kept warm

5. [also: hobbing, hobbed]

Hobbing is a machining process for gear cutting, cutting splines, and cutting sprockets on a hobbing machine, which is a special type of milling machine. The teeth or splines are progressively cut into the workpiece by a series of cuts made by a cutting tool called a hob. Compared to other gear forming processes it is relatively inexpensive but still quite accurate, thus it is used for a broad range of parts and quantities.

It is the most widely used gear cutting process for creating spur and helical gears and more gears are cut by hobbing than any other process as it is relatively quick and inexpensive.

A type of skiving that is analogous to the hobbing of external gears can be applied to the cutting of internal gears, which are skived with a rotary cutter (rather than shaped or broached).