How to Draw a Helical Gear

Helical gears have teeth that are angled instead of straight.

Mastering how to draw various types of gears will come in handy if you plan to draw complicated machines, robots other or technical objects. A helical gear looks like a standard spur gear except that the teeth are angled instead of straight. Helical gears are used in machines that have fast rotating parts. Because of the angle of the teeth, the helical gear tends to meet and move with the other gears more smoothly, allowing them to be used at faster speeds than a standard spur gear.

Instructions

1. Draw an oval in the center of your paper. A centimeter or two above that circle, draw a faint second oval.

2. Add approximately 16 evenly-spaced, squared gear teeth to the top of the second oval. Darken in the teeth; erase the faint lines of the second oval beneath each tooth.

3. Add the appearance of depth to your gear by drawing a slanted half circle from the center of the right side of the first oval to just below the center of the left side of the first oval. This will make the gear look 3-dimensional and will help you draw attention to the slanted nature of the teeth drawn in Step 4.

4. Start at the tooth located just below where the half-circle you drew from the right side of first oval begins. Angle a line toward the center of your page to make this tooth look 3-dimensional. Continue up the gear wheel, adding angled lines onto each gear tooth above until you are about halfway around the gear. Refer to the picture in the Resource link to help you visualize this step.

References

• Roymech.co.uk: Helical Gears

Resources

• ProDesktop.net: Helical Gear