3D Printing Gears – The Ultimate Guide

Check out my favorite 3D printers, the K1 Max: amzn.to/3txQUC6 or if you are on a budget, the Ender-3 V3 SE: amzn.to/3FkCPus I hope you enjoyed this video and learned something new! For more content like this, please consider supporting me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/howtomechatronics P.S. If you are interested in the measuring tools: Force meter: amzn.to/3FEUAnS ; Digital dial indicator: amzn.to/3PDvSco

I just finished assembling the drive train of my robot. It was a pain to print 36 M2-30teeth herringbone gears @100% fill with 10 walls (perimeters are faster than fill), just for the drive-train! I advise you to get some lithium grease and apply it to your gears and shafts. You will not believe the difference it makes. Before, it ran loud and rough. A few gears even seized and had to be replaced. After application of lithium grease, it ran as smooth as a baby's butt and quiet like a whisper. I was truly shocked at the difference little grease can make. Lithium grease is the only grease I know that's safe to use on all plastics. Another trick before greasing, is to run the dry at low speed and pour powered sugar or fine salt all over the gears as they run, to lap them. As they mesh, the powdered sugar will act as an abrasive. Like sand but finer and can be dissolved in water after. Then, wash the gears to get rid of all the sugar that got embedded, then grease and assemble after drying.

instead of adjusting for elephant foot with bed levelling, first layer offset, or a raft, i will usually apply a chamfer to every edge that will be on the print bed. if the layer expands, it still won't expand more than the negative offset from the chamfer! Add a little brim, and you have accurate geometry on the part where you need it, and large surface area on the print bed.

Great analysis! For more strength print more (4-6) shells/perimeters and top and bottom layers (4-6), consider internal planar structures for additional interior wall strength. Printing hotter and slower improves layer adhesion and strength. Fixturing is important for the strength tests. As you pointed out, supporting the axle on both sides to prevent deflection and ensuring the lever force is directed directed through the center of the gear rather than offset will yield maximum strength.

Have you considered experimenting with TPU as a gear material? It's reportedly quiet in operation, and has amazing wear resistance.

I tested a gearbox made up of Helical gears for the motor shaft and Double Helical gears, all printed in PLA. The gears moved a Step Feeder system, with low torque, for about 100 hours. I did not use any lubricant, and after this time the gears showed very little wear.

thanks for all the effort you put into this!

Appreciate the work that you've done for everyone. Keep it up.

A point about your test setup to determine force to destroy gears. Your pull meter has to be at right angle / perpendicular to lever arm and pull force must be applied in the same direction. Basic Physics.

have been a long time missed your videos

Very interesting & informative, many thanks.

Hi there! I enjoyed the video a lot - but the backlash testing part got very messed up. There was play everywhere - well, you pointed that out yourself and that’s good. But then… the printed parts could have been made with tighter tolerances. I actually don’t know how to proceed into creating a mechanically correct testing rig to compare them. If the mechanical wisdom affirm herringbone gears have less backlash and the 3D printed part is having more backlash, then it’s clear we did something wrong, right?

Love it ! ♥

Great video! Just one thing that may caused the teeth to shear is that you have used many loops. The gears sheared at the transition of the loop and shell/infill area. Maybe a single perimeter (wall line count) and 90-100% infill would result in stronger gears.

Great video, thank you

I get rid of elephants foot by dialing in a little bit of negative "Initial Horizontal Expansion" in Cura. Not sure if other slicers have this function.

From my experience with 3d printed gears it's always better to print with (for example: wall count 100 and Infill of 0% ) instead of (wall count 10 and infill of 100%). Depends on the gear size, the wall count must be increase to fill the whole gear even when the infill is 0%. The goal is to connect all walls (outer ,inner and hole walls) together.

My MG995 Servo motor top gear destroyed after excess loading and I want to 3d print. But it's very small and thin, what do you think is it possible?

observing the failure modes of the printed gears was interesting. it seemed like the failure was primarily happening either Wall-Wall or Wall-Infill. I wonder if minor filament under extrusion can lead to weaker wall-wall bonding. I don't like the use of the horizontal expansion setting personally. I think it is better to explicitly model allowance into the printed part before slicing.

I'm glad for this video but measuring the efficiency of gears without loading them does not make any sense. You could use another DC motor as a generator and actually do the math or you could measure rotational acceleration of a heavy disc or something Helical gears should be more efficient under loading btw