Re: 3d printed helical gear
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 5:10 am
I just finished writing an article for a magazine called digital machinist. They said it would probably be published in the summer edition. In that article I included several pictures of my retrofitted machine. I'll post the one about the machine and the extruder. I would think almost any half way decent 3 axis machine using mach3, the slic3r program ,stepper plastruder extruder and the Gnexlab temperature controller could be used . The only issue is how practical is it? Most prints are about 50Kb and some files could take several hours ruuning at 900mm a minute. So you also need a machine with no or very low backlash.
One thing I discovered is that while I can create a gear in GM and save it as a stl file that slicing program need then it could be difficult to modify the gear for let say adding a boss so you could use a set screw with it. I found that I could save the GM stl file and then open it in Bobcad 24. Then in BC24 modify the gear for what I wanted to add. Then save the file as a stl file and run in in the Slic3r program and then onto Mach3 and the printer.
Dan Mauch
Camtronics Inc
One thing I discovered is that while I can create a gear in GM and save it as a stl file that slicing program need then it could be difficult to modify the gear for let say adding a boss so you could use a set screw with it. I found that I could save the GM stl file and then open it in Bobcad 24. Then in BC24 modify the gear for what I wanted to add. Then save the file as a stl file and run in in the Slic3r program and then onto Mach3 and the printer.
Dan Mauch
Camtronics Inc