The one-inch ratchet wheels were cut with 40 teeth (about 0.070" pitch) with a homemade flycutter, with four blanks mounted on the arbor. First, using the crossfeed on the mill, the cutter was centered over the top of the wheel blanks, then moved to the left with the crossfeed --about the width of one tooth. This shift makes the ratchet tooth incline about 10 degrees, which makes the ratchet click lock into the wheel, with less chance of sliding out. You can't cut an inclined tooth with an inclined cutter! -- this is the only way to do it.
The cutter was set to a depth (using the vertical feed) so that there is a slight "land" on the tips of the ratchet teeth, which shows clearly in the photo.
The indexing fixture has a horizontal slot cut into the front hole. There is an adjusting hex head set screw to clamp it -- this permits adusting the front clearance to zero, while permitting free turning. There is a hollow screw with a hex locknut on the back fixture hole. This permits adjusting the "endshake" of the arbor to zero, as well. This is a feature I've never seen in any other fixture. This makes for a rigid fixture, whose arbor still turns easily.
The arbor is threaded with 1/4" NF on both ends -- one to hold the wheel blanks, the other to clamp on the index plate. There is a hole for a "tommy bar" in the middle of the arbor to permit insertion of a punch so that the 1/4" NF nuts can be screwed on nuts on tight.
The series of holes in the index plate were drilled with a Sherline rotary table. The lever which holds the pin inserted in the holes is made from an old hacksaw blade.
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