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I will be mounting a sprocket gear on the 2 inch input shaft to my custom piece of industrial machinery I am preparing. The sprocket gears are available in 1 15/16 and 2 inch bore diameter. Would there be an advantage to having the end section of my shaft turned down to 1 15/16 in ? I feel like if the shaft was a bit smaller in that section, it would help keep the sprocket in place, and act as sort of a built in snap ring to hold the lateral position of the gear.

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The word you're looking for is "shoulder". It might help but it's kind of pointless during operation if you are using a setscrew. Might help with assembly I guess since there is less thinking involved If it were square or D-shaft it and no setscrew then it would help since you would only need one snap ring or shaft collar.

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  • $\begingroup$ I imagine I still need one snapring on one side even if I can hold it against the shoulder, even with the setscew. Also, my sprocket has one keyway with setscrew, and one setscrew with no keyway. Do I need to modify the shaft to accomadate a setscrew that does not go with a keyway? $\endgroup$
    – sebastian323
    Mar 21 at 0:56
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    $\begingroup$ @sebastian323 Well, yeah. Was that not clear? Shoulder +snap ring or shaft collar. I don't follow your description about keyways. $\endgroup$
    – DKNguyen
    Mar 21 at 1:03
  • $\begingroup$ I did a little bit of reading and yes it is more clear. I had been wondering about how setscrews hold in place without an associated keyway , it seems they simply slightly cut into the shaft material $\endgroup$
    – sebastian323
    Mar 21 at 3:38
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    $\begingroup$ @sebastian323 Well, keyways are meant for keys, not setscrews. There are coned tipped, round tipped, and flat tipped setscrews. Cone tipped is designed to dig into the shaft and so technically can work without a setscrew but will leave displace material and leave marks that may prevent a tight fitting shaft from being removed so they should really be used with a flat. Flat tipped setscrews work very well with a flat obviously. $\endgroup$
    – DKNguyen
    Mar 21 at 4:00
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    $\begingroup$ In applications that don't require so much torque flat and round tipped setscrews might be pressed directly against the shaft and are used so they don't leave marks to interefere with future adjustments. Then of course there plastic and brass tipped setscrews which take this even farther. $\endgroup$
    – DKNguyen
    Mar 21 at 4:03

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