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by TaylorAlexander 2321 days ago
PETG. Specifically it would either be Hatchbox PETG or PushPlastic PETG.
2 comments
huseyinkeles 2321 days ago
I'm very new into 3D printing scene, so far only been printed with PLA.

Also have some ideas that includes some motorised parts with gears. Do you think PLA is a bad choice for this?

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TaylorAlexander 2321 days ago
For gears in general PLA is fine. If they have a lot of friction they will heat up and that’s where the PLA could fail. But PETG is very easy to print with! You’d need to adjust nozzle and bed temp but it prints very nicely. :)

PLA is fine to start with though. If you see failures you can switch.

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djmips 2321 days ago
Have you considered fibre reinforced plastic? I'm not an expert but I'm curious if that's a good option.
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TaylorAlexander 2321 days ago
I’ve seen fiberglass reinforced nylon gears used with success in commercial injection molded gearboxes. It can definitely help by increasing gear stiffness.

However 3D printing with fiberglass causes rapid nozzle wear, and recently people are saying that fiberglass reinforced 3D printing filaments represent a human hazard.

Since I’ve managed to get my gears to work without reinforcement, I’ve not tried it.

One thing I do with printed gears is make the gear teeth much larger than would be strictly needed in an injection molded solution. This lets me deal with reduced material performance compared to injection molding.

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zxzx 2321 days ago
You might be interested in resin casting technique. It gives amazing results. Lcamtuf wrote a whole series about this:

http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/ch1/

and very nice article for make zine:

https://makezine.com/2014/03/21/resin-casting-going-from-cad...

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double0jimb0 2321 days ago
Have printed many spools of CF and glass filled nylons using nozzles with tips made from ruby.

Check out “Hardcore Ruby” nozzles, now there are even diamond nozzles.

I print with 0.25mm nozzle in nylon, fine enough for Module=1.5 teeth.

A 0.15mm nozzle would make an acceptable Module=1 gear I would guess.

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TaylorAlexander 2321 days ago
Yes I’ve seen ruby nozzles. Expensive though.

I actually print with a 1.2mm nozzle as I want to print big parts. I’ve even got the e3d Supervolcano hot end. :)

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