GearHeads Corner

First off i dont know 'gear' terminology so please forgive my ignorance.

I am making gears and saving them as an stl file to print on my 3D printer.
I would like to create gears without the shaft collar so I can start my print job on the flat side of a beveled gear (using beveled gear because I am needing two gears at 90 degrees from each other).
The collar is basically the raised circular area on one side of the gear surrounding the gear's shaft hole.

I have been importing the gears into sketchup to delete that part so I have a larger flat area to print first as beveled gears aren't flat on both sides.

Also when printing beveled gears is there a setting that will make both sides of a gear flat? The gear teeth of the beveled gears extend away from it's plane.
If they were flat on both sides I could print one side of my choosing with a small collar that I could drill a small hole into and place a set screw to hold the 3D printed gear on a shaft.

And for a real noob question.....how do I save an STL file with the spokes? i can only save a completely filled in gear.
Thanks for the help.

And I plan on building clocks that are largely 3D printed and love this software......at least the little part I've learned so far.

Hi Joel:

  Bevels are a bit special in the way they are built. The collars were added because the
blanks will usually be too thin to be used with no collar due to the way the teeth bend inwards
on the inside edge. ( What you call bending outwards. :) )

I will put on my list the ability to remove a collar, but its intrinsic to its build process
so I cant promise when that might occur, ( might be easy, might be very hard..).

  They print real well on my 3d printer, but the UP is exceptional on supports so
its not something everyone will find the same. I will see whats possible though to
make it easier..

Art

You don't say what slicing program you're using, but most of them will generate a somewhat easily removable support structure.  I've used slic3r and printed the collared bevels without any problems.  The collar side of the gear needs some sanding to get rid of the bumps left over from the support.  Maybe Art can add nut traps to the ever expanding project list; melt-in metal inserts are supposed to work very well, although they're still on my to-do list so I can't confirm it, and can be used now with maybe a little drilling.

I hope you share your 3D printed clock designs here.  Check out Thingiverse user syvwlch and his 3D printed clock project for some ideas.

Kirk

Great thanks.

Is there a way to make the side of the beveled gear as thick as the teeth are tall?
Here is a picture of two beveled gears.
The one e on the right shows the teeth is extending above the side of the gear.
I would love to see an ability to bring the side out to create a thicker beveled gear so the side is flush with the inward pointing gear = easier 3D printing.

You don't say what slicing program you're using, but most of them will generate a somewhat easily removable support structure .

I used to use slic3r but find Cura is faster and has a feature list I appreciate more.

The supports I've tried in the past add another wrinkle to cleanup.
I try to engineer around the need for supports but know I will have to fiddle with them more some day...hopefully a cheap reusable+water dissolvable solution will come soon and then I'll add another hotend to my printer.

Maybe Art can add nut traps

That would be great.
I saw a method where a guy dropped a nut in the nut trap before the printer started adding plastic over the area effectively embedding the nut inside the piece.
Very cool.

Not a bad idea, Ive used nut drops in my acrylic laser cutting, Ill keep this in mind for future work
where I think I can add such things. Ive several things to add in future on all modules, but Ill get them
working as in GM first before I look at add too many new wonders. :)

Art