Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

All gearing loses power Jim, but if all alignments and depthing are set up correctly, very little power is lost. Same is true of bevel gears, but getting the angle correct so depthing is the same across the whole interface of the gears can be a bit trickier than simple gearing.

Full disclaimer, I've not much done things along these lines with my own machining, but did do a fair amount of work on such, long ago and far away on gear-trains of prodigious proportions, working at the design level while watching them take shape out in the machine bays.

Generally speaking, when running at speed, the more gear "whine" or noise that you hear, the more power is being lost, but careful depthing and lapping are great at noise reduction.

For a regular 90, or other degree offset, toy steam transmission, I don't think you have much to worry about beyond simple binding from misalignment.

Certainly possible, but you'd be having a lot of lash/slop on the final RH shaft by doing it that way. It would definitely be considered best practice to drive the intermediate shaft instead, then having two idler arms to either side, but I gather that doesn't fit your desired design.

I'd say build the mock-up and see what you get, but I sure don't see any reason why it would be any undue problem the way you have it drawn.

I’d think the losses through the bevel gears would be very low at this power level. That said there would likely be a lot of backlash in the mesh. Since it looks like you have two parallel shafts, why not drive them with belts and limit it to just one gear set?  That could give you the chance to have different drive ration available as well.

Super appreciate the help and advice everyone, thank you!