Pinion Tribulations

I have been struggling with an issue in the mean time gearing, that is the last remaining major issue with the clock. The first and second pinions are M0.6 10T, and both are running rather rough. I suspect this is due to an issue stemming from undercutting, with is produced when machining gears using “generated” rather than “form” cutters when the tooth count is below 17T. Essentially, low tooth count gears start enduring a lot of rotation in the tooth mesh due to the tight curvature and the teeth start contacting in a new way that requires cutting away the nominal contact region to not bind. The cutter being used is a 12-13T M0.6, which I assumed to be close enough for a 10T but now believe is not. I’ve investigated adding a train remontoir on the 2nd arbor which initially shows promise but actually accentuates the variability. I am not modifying the M0.6 10-75T mesh to a M0.5 12-90T, which will hopefully help resolve the issue while preserving the gear ratio and center distance. I’ve also experimented with adding profile shift, but am not confident that the form cutters are accurately creating the needed shape.