How Small Can You 3D Print Gears?

Music: Minecraft soundtrack
Thankyou to Elegoo for supplying me with a mars 5 ultra to make a few videos with.
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My name is Chris, I am a 3D printing hobbyist from australia. I dont really specialise in anything specific, but 3D printed tools and tabletop accessories are some things youll probably seen quiet often. I do all my 3d printing on a Ender 3, which I highly recommend as a budget printer. Currently I only run 1 printer but I hope to expand that in the future. Recently acquired a photon 0 to do resin printing with. I like to share all my 3D printing ideas for free although I do plan to sell stuff in the future. Most of my projects will be mostly 3D printed with a few non printed components included, these can often be found on ebay. I actually use the cheapest filament I can get for all my projects, again I hope to change this in the future.

[@ger5956]

With better tuning you can absolutely get better results! Your prints look over exposed which will ruin fine detail. Spend an hour dialling in the settings for your resin, you’d be amazed at the improvements that could be made. You can also tune for dimensional accuracy which would also be important for gears.

[@Jetijs]

I agree. Even my cheap 2k resolution generic printer gave way better results. Of course after proper configuration. Each resin is a bit different, need to account also for that. You can do better, way better. I would suggest printing a calibration model for resin printers. Do it several times by dialing in the settings. You should get at least 0.1mm precision on the edges. Keep up the good work. I enjoy your videos!

[@SatansLtlBaby]

i wonder if you had the resin exposure dialed in for those prints as the small gears looked overexposed compared to the sliced file preview. you may get better prints if you dial in your exposure a bit.

[@mistaecco]

While this is potentially true, there's also something to be said for working within the constraints of your tools as-they-come

[@Argosh]

@@mistaecco that's just nonsense in 3D printing. Even with the recent advanced FDM printers you still need at least some settings for different filaments. That goes just doubly so for resin.

[@mikeyjohnson5888]

@@mistaecco For one off hand tools, thats understandable. For fabrication machines, you can't have that attitude. There is always some way to do something.

[@86abaile]

Those prints were all over exposed.

[@hannas865]

You could also definitely clean them up in a couple of minutes with a needle file to get meshing

[@brunofernandesdarosa]

it's incredible to see the video and the comments. based on previous videos, i can see that chris will read them and use the constructive criticism to step up and create even better gears and content. what and awesome comunity.

[@StripeyType]

Some points worth noting for folks interested in mSLA printing very small mechanical parts: * display resolution doesn't tell us much. The important spec to look at is pixel size. For two screens of identical size, yes, a 9K resolution print bed will have smaller pixel size than a 4K - but the assumption there is a pretty big one. Many manufacturers of chitu-driven mSLA printers don't actually publish this. It's easy to calculate though. * as mechanical features get smaller, print settings, post-print cleaning workflow, choice of resin, and even the degree to which UV light is collimated as it enters the vat *really* start to matter. You can see this in Chris' work. He did everything right, but at a certain point you start chasing these variables. TL;DR: I've had reasonable success with module 0.25 gears, using non-specialty resin on a printer that's laughably out-of-date at this point. Lower than that and the other factors I mention become incredibly important. This'll be true on even a brand new mSLA printer because pixel sizes haven't gotten much smaller in the last five years or so. What you get instead in larger build plates and higher power UV LEDs for curing, which means that you can print more at once and more quickly.

[@alexanderkurz257]

Started smiling when i realized that he uses Minecraft music in background :)

[@RoccosStuff]

Great video, as always! I'd love to see a similar video for FDM printers, I have found that gears with smaller teeth tend to have more failed prints and I've never found the sweet spot for compact gears that print reliably.

[@evanbarnes9984]

I've had great luck with 1mm module gears on FDM. You definitely can go smaller, but I've printed a lot with 1mm very reliably

[@benoitlagace]

a laser could also be used to clear the profile at the end or doing it with tiny files

[@foxxxxxxxxxx]

LOVE THE MUSIC!!!!!

[@briswolf]

A year or so ago I bought a resin printer (which one is not so important because ultimately they all do the same thing, just resolution and ease of use which really changes). My biggest gripe with resin printing was the cleanup/mess/toxic nature of it all. I had read people online saying that was a pain, and I thought "oh how bad could it be". Turns out, it's a major pain in the butt. Resin printing is definitely something you only want to use where you really have a good reason to do so. Also, I found that with ABS-like resins my parts warped over time and no longer fit/ran together smoothly. I am not sure if I didn't cure them properly or if that's just normal for resin prints. All in all I was super happy to get an FDM printer again, its so easy and convenient, and I don't feel like I am going to get cancer every time I use it. I have a lot of respect for people who have the time to persist with resin printing. I hope they have very good respirators.

[@noviceartisan]

As someone who's a little more experience with making tiny, flar parts.. Consider printing directly onto the build plate, fuck the supports, they're not needed. You just need to compensate for the elephants foot, which requires calibration and patience, but quite doable with a little effort. It'll let you print perfect gears that are much, much thinner and completely accurate, if you're patient :)

[@noviceartisan]

Also, replace the FEP of the vat with a high quality one, that's not too thick and has extremely high optical clarity, it'll help infinitely. The resin you use also HIGHLY affects the end product, as does the exact exposure time you're using, it'll need calibrating depending on usage task and resin used. For a resin that's highly accurate, precise and insanely strong, try Siraya Lava Black, it's insanely good for mechanical parts, you can even drill and tap it!

[@AnimationRecapz]

Great video! I've been trying to print small gears in a 3D printer without any success, I guess it's time to buy a Resin printer.

[@jackolantern610]

Those clocks looked cool

[@satibel]

You can make very small gears with a blade and a way larger gear, cutting a tooth on the small gear attached to the large gear, and moving the large gear by 1 tooth. (That also works with metal too) If you want even smaller you can probably etch a copper sheet, but I'm not sure what you'd be doing at that scale.

[@Scrogan]

See about making a jig in order to test breaking force/torque of those teeth. For the smaller gears it would be as simple as holding one gear fixed, and hanging a weight from a pulley mounted to the other gear. Though that depends on the depth, so there’s a compromise between strength and friction. A system that could measure rolling resistance as well would be nice.

[@LTE18]

try experimenting with different gear module. Diameter is not the only size that defines a gear

[@sambrown7256]

May I suggest printing the .1 gears on a different angle and dialling in the resin exposure more. On a vertically angled plane, you should be able to easily get functional teeth down to .025 on that resin printer.

[@OfBronzeandBlaze]

When making something with such a high degree of durability and precision as gears, I wonder if casting would be preferable. I’m sure there’s a creator in your area that may be able to help. As an American, it seems like there are a disproportionate number of Aussies who are creators here on KZbin

[@aaamott]

Exactly what I've been looking for! Thank you! Any chance you could do a follow-up with wear tests and some accuracy tests? If you do ever get the tooth-break test setup figured out, that'll be a good day!

[@Leadvest]

I wonder how small of a single point threading lathe you could make.

[@waltonchan3931]

Some of the high resolution resins and the “cones of calibration” might be able to push involute gear profiles even smaller!

[@remotepinecone]

The small ones need to have better tooth profile. The design isn't for plastic, but what kind of resin? Mine can produce pointy sharp things so teeth shouldn't be a problem, the shape of the tooth is what is important at that size.

[@RealSnail3D]

Thanks!!

[@monsieurgoyave1235]

lets go thank you for the new video, continue like that

[@runforitman]

I've found resin to be a poor bearing surface for gears

[@a_pakhomov]

yes, but there are special resins like Siraya Mecha White that work good for rubbing parts

[@osmanpasha_diy]

There is something wrong with your print settings. I've recently printed M0.5 gears on 4K printer and they look much crisper.

[@nikolaikruglikov7358]

My elegoo mars 4 default settings needed some tweaking. As far as I understand, there’s a trade-off between resolution and strength of the prints. Also, as some commenters noted, orientation of the print plays big role. I came to SLA printing after FDM, and I must say that knowledge isn’t very transferable, you need to learn a lot additional info about the process; FDM intuition can fail you. Thanks for the video!

[@76Eliam]

Wow, what's this moon phases clock you're teasing in your video ? Something for the clock/watchmaking Cult3D competition ? It looks really insane and share some vague similarities with a moon phase clock idea I had. I hope you'll show it in a future video. Anyway it was really interesting to see.

[@8thsinner]

Now youve gotten me wondering about helical and herringbone gears, wouldn't the longer tooth length being spread out over a radius offer more grip in the .2 range?...

[@adamsiwek7995]

Great video. I would love to see some strength mes.

[@CraftedChannel]

I can see from a few videos, your no ordinary maker. I enjoyed this video. Yes the parts run together but here isn't really an involute example here. Due to resolution issues, they are closer to triangles and not really meshing together at the proper pitch distance. I'm afraid your skill in design is still out in front of what 3d printing is capable of producing.

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

I know the things weren't being boiled in that one shot, but it just kind of looks like it SuperVinlin

[@rainday1518]

and what do you think of making a machine that makes gears, they use this in watchmaking but I think that making one in 3D should not be one of your biggest creations, in any case your videos are always so beautiful to watch.

[@stefanguiton]

great video

[@apinakapinastorba]

Really crummy gears. If I saw correctly, they were on supports but oriented flat? Worst way propably one could choose. Either angled or straight on plate, if you can get that particular resin parts off the plate.

[@foxtrot000]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your stuff is insane keep these awesome videos coming!❤ also am I trippin or is this trailmakers music

[@TauCu]

Minecraft soundtrack by C418

[@spork861]

Your prints definitely need some tuning, those gear teeth are already seeming to become muddied in shape at a scale where it should be very crisp.

[@Speedgaming802]

W elegoo

[@HalcyonSmyle]

nice vid

[@TheMsnlmtt]

What's with the choice of music?

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

Well, so much for the idea that resin printers can't print dimensionally accurate parts.

[@Argosh]

Well, it didn't really print perfect, did it? Those prints were overexposed, so the settings definitely need tweaking. You should be able to get m.1 easily.

[@cinobro6393]

Definitely need to run those gears over some high grit sandpaper to get rid of the support marks, also try to angle the parts when printing as you always want the layer cross sectional area as small as possible to minimise peel force and warping.

[@satibel]

Not sure about that for very small gears since you might get some artifacts

[@lunaumbra5179]

I love a low effort video to appease the sponsors 😇 I'm a little surprised to hear you say gears are essential knowledge for 3d printing. I've never printed gears and only make functional parts. I guess my function in life is less complicated than yours 😋

[@daliasprints9798]

Gears are an excellent functional part to print. You can get all sorts of parts that are otherwise expensive or impossible to find. This includes worm wheels to go with available metal worms, to give reduction ratios different than the few ratios typically available.

[@lunaumbra5179]

​@@daliasprints9798I agree and understand. He's just said one of the most important skills for 3d printing which seemed like a shallow statement to make, especially since many people don't print functional stuff ever.

[@TheChillieboo]

epic

[@Luka1180]

This also totally depends on your printer. Printers, toolheads, hotends, they have different tolerances, in different ways. The filament is also super important. Use ABS or PETG. Also, resin printing is great for accuracy, but FDM printing generally produces way stronger objects that last longer. For this reason, functional prints are better made on those. Also consider making your own CNC router (or mill?), perhaps with SOME parts being 3D printed. Then you can use real metal for gears :)

[@Vudian]

That's some low quality from resin printer

[@makkapakkka]

Your resin print quality is the limiting factor. A seriously invalid video and test...